Coach Buzzer's Granddaughter
by Avry246
Summary: When Stella's grandfather dies she meets up with his old basketball team and their kids. She goes to the lake house with them and has a crazy 4th of July. And finds love where she least excpects it. Greg/OC. T cause I'm paranoid. Bad Summary.Good Story!
1. Chapter 1

A/N ok guys this is the same story it's just edited. I got a beta reader cause I wanted oneXD now onto the story.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine

_Stella's thoughts_

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

I was standing in front of the funeral home with my mom, the both of us waiting for her old middle school friends to show up.

"Lilly? Lilly Connelly?" somebody  
>called out to my mom.<p>

I looked over, and saw a short guy walk on up to mom. He was close to my height, which - when you think about it and consider the fact that I'm fourteen - is kinda' weird.

Mom's eyebrows furrowed. "Rob? Rob Hilliard?"

He nodded, and hugged her. Truth be told, the fact that mom was hugging a guy that she hadn't seen in nearly thirty years (so she said) wasn't all that surprising to me; really, she'll hug any guy, and vice versa. Mom's...(what's the word I'm thinking of?) To put it nicely, she's...easy.

"So nice to see you," she smiled before gesturing to me. "I'd like you to meet my daughter, Stella."

'Rob' looked over at me. "You're Lilly's little girl?"

I smiled politely, and nodded. "Yes sir, I am."

Rob's eyes met mom's. "She has your smile, Lilly," he told her with an assuring nod.

Yeah, mom and I have the same smile, but that's it. While mom's got the bright blonde hair and blue eyes that make her look like a Barbie doll, I have my dad's thick jet-black hair and green eyes. Mom says that I'm the spitting image of him.

Well, even though I have NO idea who my dad is, I'll just assumethat she's right about that.

An older woman (probably in her late 60's) breezed up beside Rob.

Noticing this, Rob grinned, and pointed to her. "Lilly, Stella - this is my wife, Gloria."

Mom was barely able to hide a wince. "Nice to meet you," she managed.

I nodded. "Yeah, nice to meet you."  
>So, that explains why he's not hitting on mom, I thought. He's into older women. - italicized<p>

Gloria gave the both of us this super-friendly, toothy smile. "I like your earrings, honey," she said to me as she pointed to the dangly star earrings I was wearing.

I bit my lip awkwardly, and stared down at the sidewalk. I stared at her velvet covered kitten heels for a second. "I like your...shoes."

There was uncomfortable silence between the four of us. Luckily, the  
>MacKenzies pulled up in their Volvo, and unknowingly saved me from the conversation I'd gotten sucked into.<p>

I jogged over to their car, and excitedly waited for Charlotte - my best friend after only hanging out with her and her family five times - to get out.

"Charlie!" I squealed as she got out of the back, and slammed the door shut.

A look of glee bloomed on her face. "Stella!" She ran over to me, and hugged me. "I missed you!"

"Missed you, too!"

"Hey, I don't get a hug?" Looking over Charlie's shoulder, I saw her older brother, Andre, give me this teasing smile before he held his arms out.

I sighed, let go of Charlie, and went to hug Andre. I smiled softly."Andy,  
>Andy, Andy..." I play-scolded him with one of his MANY nicknames.<p>

"Hey, Stella!" I glanced behind me, and saw Andre and Charlie's parents waving at me.

I quickly unwrapped my arms from around Andre, and skipped over to them.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie," I  
>chirped.<p>

Mr. MacKenzie gave me a high-five. "Hey! Great to see you!"  
>His wife quickly added in, "By the way sweetie, you can call us Kurt and Deanne." She sent me a goofy look. "So we don't feel TOO old."<p>

"Sure thing."

All of a sudden, this huge woman with what looked like an airplane propeller on her head waddled over, almost knocking Kurt over in the process - the one and only Mama Ronzoni, Charlotte and Andre's grandma.

Oh, DEAR LORD. She grabbed my cheeks, and gave me a big kiss on the forehead. "Look at how big you've gotten, Stella! You still need some meat on those bones of yours, but my goodness, you're tall!"

"Thank you?" I said, not really sure how to react to that.

By then though, Mama Ronzoni had let go of my cheeks and walked away. I shook my head - I was never gonna get used to that woman.

"Hollywood!" I heard Kurt yell to somebody

I turned around, and saw that Kurt was yelling at a guy with black hair and a big nose. He was standing in front of a big black GMC Yukon with a Hispanic  
>woman, two boys, one girl, and an Asian woman who looked suspiciously like a nanny.<p>

The black-haired man laughed. "Hey, look at that! Kurt MacKenzie and the whole MacKenzie clan!" He walked over to Kurt, gave him a man-hug, then turned to mom with a laid-back, one-sided smile on his face.

"And this must be Lilly  
>Connelly." He gave mom a hug.<p>

"Nice to see you again, Lenny," mom beamed. She rolled out the same gesture she'd used when she introduced me to Rob and Gloria.

"Lenny, this is my daughter, Stella."

Lenny looked at me, and nodded. "Ah, so you're the infamous Stella Connelly," he said as he shook my hand.

"Yep, the one and only."  
>He pointed to the three kids behind him with his thumbs. "You oughta' meet my kids - I think you'd like them."<p>

Interested in meeting his kids, I gave Lenny a why-not shrug, and walked over to his car with Deanne, although I doubted she felt like doing what I was doing.

Apparently, I was right; Deanne made a beeline for the Hispanic woman (Lenny's wife, probably), and struck up a conversation with her.

"Hi, Roxanne!" she greeted the woman cheerfully. "I don't know if you remember me, but I was at your wedding - I was table dancing all night. Deanne MacKenzie."

'Roxanne' gave Deanne a cordial smile. "Of course Deanne, hello!"

She gestured to Deanne's stomach, which - at six months pregnant - was about the size of a  
>beachball. "Oh my gosh, you're glowing. You look so beautiful with your pregnancy."<p>

Immediately after Roxanne said that, I knew that there were two possible responses to that compliment - either Deanne would thank her for it, or she  
>would crack a joke. Knowing Deanne, she was probably gonna go with option number two.<p>

And she did. Deanne looked completely serious as she said, "What the hell are you talking about?"

As Roxanne's smile started to fade, Deanne burst out laughing. "I'm just  
>playing! Oh god, you should've seen your face! You were like 'huh?'"<br>she  
>cackled as Roxanne's cheeks turned the color of a cherry tomato.<br>Watching her, I felt kinda' bad for Roxanne; the poor lady looked like she was about to croak.

So, I threw her a bone and introduced myself. "Hi, Mrs. Feder," I said somewhat-shyly. "I'm Buzzer's granddaughter, Stella  
>Connelly."<p>

"Hello, Stella," Roxanne smiled, "I'm Roxanne. Nice to meet you."

She pointed to the two boys and one girl standing behind her. "These are my kids" - she pointed to each kid and gave their names - "Greg, Keith and Becky."

I looked at the boy Roxanne had called Greg. He looked like he was my age. He was pretty cute, too; he had wavy dark-brown hair, and an overall good-looking face and body.

I nodded to myself - I could definitely get used to hanging around this boy.

"Hey babe," he said to me in an attempt to sound cool.

On second thought, never mind. - italicized

I quirked an eyebrow. "What's up, hot stuff?" I shot back mockingly.

He opened his mouth to say something, but his phone went off just before he could give me lip.

His ringtone was some stupid rap song about being a gangsta, shooting big guns, having girls, and all this other crap.

I rolled my eyes as the ringtone played and as Keith rolled out some weird swag-dance.

Lenny looked at Greg irritably when his phone went off. "Didn't I tell you to turn the phone off, Greg?"

"Yeah, but it's my massage therapist!" Greg protested.

Massage therapist? SERIOUSLY? What kind of fourteen-year old has a massage therapist? - italicized

Lenny shook his head. "What? No, no cell phones."

"What? No cell phones? Then I'm outta here!" a voice behind us said jokingly.

I mentally squealed at the sound of Marcus Higgins' voice. I turned around, and ran to give him a big hug.

Marcus and mom had a thing back when I was younger, and he was always around our house, just hanging out and having a good time with me and mom.

The guy was sorta' like an uncle to me. The guy might seem pretty skeevey/perverted/flirty around most people, but he's really  
>cool when he's hanging out with me and mom.<p>

He caught me, and squeezed me in a bear hug. "If it isn't Stella," he said.  
>"Any boyfriends yet?"<p>

I shook my head. "Nope, not yet."  
>Repeating something he told me a couple years ago, he chuckled,<p>

"You're too  
>pretty not to have a boyfriend. Man, if we were your age, we'd be all over you!"<p>

I looked at Marcus with a creeped out look on my face, and scooted off to the side.

Marcus laughly loudly at that. "Relax Stella, I'm just kidding. That would be illegal."

I wasn't all that convinced. "I'm gonna go inside," I said quickly.

"Alright, say hi to your mom for me!"

I nodded, and kept walking towards the funeral home.

It was PACKED when I got inside, to the point where it was hard for me to find a seat.

Not that it annoyed me though; it was actually nice to see so many  
>people here bidding my grandpa goodbye.<p>

He was the type of person who always put others first before himself, no matter what. And now, we were all doing the same for him.

I finally found an empty spot next to Charlotte, so I ran over and took it before anybody else could.

"Hey," I said to her as I sat down.

"Hey." Charlie suddenly got this impish look on her face. "Soo...I saw you meet Greg."

I glanced to my right, and briefly stared at him as he played a game on his PSP.

My face puckered up.

"Ugh, don't remind me," I groaned.

"Aw c'mon, he's cute, Stella! You two would look great together!"

_Yeah, NO._

"I don't care if I haven't had a boyfriend yet, Charlie - there's no WAY that Greg Feder's gonna be my first."

"Yeah, we'll see," Charlie snickered.

_Oh, BRILLIANT_.

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><p>AN I liked the way this one turned out better then the first. Thank you  
>phoenixfire53! Reviews are love<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N edited version of chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own Stella her mom and anything else you don't recognize

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><p>Chapter 2<p>

An hour and thirty minutes went by, and I was STILL sitting in the funeral home.

By then, I was so irritated (thanks to Greg repeatedly kicking me and  
>Keith poking me in the back the entire time) and fidgety (thanks to<p>

Rob VERY dramatically belting out Ave Maria like he was debuting at Carnegie Hall) that I thought I was gonna go mental if the funeral didn't end soon.

Thankfully, Marcus eased up and the tension by making a buzzer noise at the end of Rob's  
>'special presentation', and thus ended the funeral.<p>

I probably mentally thanked him fifty times for that as I walked out of the building.

Now that the funeral was over, we all headed to the nearby park for the reception.

Bored, I sat down at a table, and saved a seat for Charlotte.

When Charlie sat down next to me, Andre sat down on my other side.

Pretty soon, every single kid I'd met that day was sitting at the table, either by choice or by parental force.

To say that sitting at that table was awkward would've been an understatement; there was uncomfortable silence between most of the kids - me included - and  
>one certain other person (COUGH COUGH) wouldn't stop badgering me about where mine and Greg Feder's wedding was going to be.<p>

Where's our wedding going to be? WHO ASKS THAT QUESTION? - italicized

"I'm hungry," an overweight twelve-year old girl in a pink dress informed us."I'm gonna get some food."

Charlie followed suit. "Yeah, me too."

I looked around the table to see who I was keeping company with. I noted Andre, Becky, a four-year old with a faux-hawk, and Greg and Keith.

When I got to those two, I immediately excused myself from the table, and practically bolted for the buffet line.

God knows I wasn't about to deal with those two dummies.

After taking a plate with some sheet cake on it, I waltzed over Marcus, Lenny, Kurt, and a BIG guy with a small beard and mustache, and sat next to Marcus.

He grinned. "Stella! I was just gonna call you over. I want you to meet  
>somebody." He jutted his thumb at the big guy.<p>

I twiddled my fingers at him. "Stella Connelly."

"Hi Stella. I've heard a lot about you," the guy said as he shook my hand.

"I'm Eric Lamansoff."

"Cool. Nice to meet you."

Eric chuckled. "Have you met my daughter, Donna?"

My eyebrows furrowed. "Donna?" I glanced at the overweight twelve-year old. "You mean the girl in the pink dress?"

"Yep, that's her."

I nodded slowly, and tried to come up with something to say. "Yeah, I've met her. She seems...nice," I managed.

Eric seemed satisfied with that, so he smiled at me.

Just then, Lenny randomly spoke up. "So, what do we think of Rob's girl? We happy for him or what?"

Marcus scoffed. "Oh god, the Saint Pauli Grandma?"

"Oh c'mon, she's pretty," Eric play-scolded Marcus. "You know, in me-in-a-wig sorta' way."

I watched as Rob and Gloria sat at a table in front of me, and practically gagged as Rob proceeded to rub Gloria's ancient and wrinkly feet.

I looked down at the plate of sheet cake sitting in my lap; I'd suddenly lost my appetite.

"Uh...I'm not so hungry anymore."

"You and me both, Stella," Marcus nodded.

I excused myself, and dumped my plate of food into a nearby trash can.

I then returned to my spot at the table, and sat next to Charlie, who was noshing on a slab of strawberry shortcake.

She shot me a funny look. "I thought you were getting some food."

"I was."

"What happened?"

"I saw Rob giving Gloria a foot rub."

Charlie nodded empathetically. "I know, it's totally gross."

I just nodded, then looked at the people sitting with us; not surprisingly, Greg and Keith were shooting things on their PSPs,

Donna was scarfing down a  
>huge pile of cake, and the other random kids were talking.<p>

All in all, nothing special was going on.

All of a sudden, somebody screamed - somebody who happened to be my mom.

Concerned, I ran off to find her,

Charlie and Andre tagging along behind me.

By the time I finally found her, Marcus, Lenny, Kurt and Eric were crowded around her.

I quickly weaved through them towards mom to find out what was  
>going on.<p>

"Mom? What happened?"

Mom looked at me with this expression of complete and total ecstasy on her face. "You remember the book I wrote? The one about the seventeen-year old  
>musician girl?"<p>

I nodded. "What about it?"

"PARAMOUNT'S TURNING IT INTO A MOVIE, AND I'M PRODUCING IT!"

I started jumping up and down with mom and Charlie. My mom was gonna be a movie producer!

"We're heading to Los Angeles first thing tomorrow morning!" she grinned excitedly.

Charlie stopped jumping all of a sudden. Confused, I stopped jumping, and looked at her. "What's wrong?"

"You're not gonna stay at the lake house with us?"

Lake house? What lake house? - italicized

Mom stopped jumping. Her brows knitted together. "Wait a sec, are you talking about the Ernshaw lake house?"

Charlie nodded. "Mr. Feder rented it for everyone for the weekend," she  
>explained to mom.<p>

"Oh gosh, I didn't know." Mom bit her lip. "I'd love to go with you guys, but I can't pass up the producing opportunity..."

Charlie all of a sudden looked like she'd had a lightbulb moment. "You could still go to LA, and we could take care of Stella over the weekend!"

Kurt (much to my surprise) agreed. "Deanne and I would be happy to take Stella with us, Lilly. It's no problem."

"I don't know, Kurt. I'm not sure how we'd get my little girl home."

"I could hop a plane down to Los Angeles, mom," I suggested. "I've done it before."

"I'm not so sure about that, baby..."

I gave mom my best puppy eyes. I even got down on my knees and clasped my hands together, I was desperate to go to the lake house with Charlie and her family.

"Please mom?" I begged. "PLEASE?"

Mom was silent for a second. She then sighed. "When you get off the plane, I'll be waiting right next to the gate," she smiled softly.

Charlie and I squealed excitedly, and we started jumping again. "We're going to the lake house! We're going to the lake house!" we sang at the top of our lungs.  
>"We are, but we've gotta get Stella's things in the car first,"<p>

Kurt laughed.

He waved Deanne over. "Honey, c'mere and give me a hand with Stella's luggage!"

Then, he, mom and Deanne disappeared to go take care of that.

Meanwhile, me and Charlie walked back to the table to sit down for a bit.

"I'm so happy you get to go!" Charlie gushed as we took our seats at the  
>table.<p>

Walking past me, Greg stated, "I'm not!"

I rolled my eyes. "No one cares," I replied boredly.

Greg just shook his head. "Whatever. At least I'm not staying the entire weekend."

"Yeah, thank god for that."

At the moment, I couldn't give a rip about what Greg said. I was going to the lake house with Charlie, and that was what mattered to me.

"Charlotte! Stella! Greg!" Kurt yelled to us from the parking lot. "Get in the car! We're heading out!"

I looked at Charlie devilishly. "Race ya." I got out of my chair, and bolted for her family's car without a word. I won.

"Hey, no fair! You're in flats and I'm in high heels!" Charlie crabbed.

I stuck my tongue out at her playfully. "Whatever floats your  
>boat, Charlie."<p>

We got in the back seat of the car, and buckled up. Within a few moments, we were out of the parking lot, and heading off to the lake house.

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><p>AN Reviews are love:)


	3. Chapter 3

A/N edited version of chapter 3.

_Stella's thoughts_

Disclaimer: I don't own Grown Ups

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

"I spy with my little eye..." Andre began.

I sighed boredly. "Is it a tree?" I said as I rested my head against my  
>window.<br>I knew Andre was thinking of a tree (and had been for the past hour now); I was only playing the game to humor him, and because, quite frankly, I couldn't think of anything better to do at the moment.

"Dang it Stella, you're good!"  
>I swallowed the bubble of laughter that had wormed its way up my throat, and<br>tried to readjust myself.

However, the fact that Charlie was currently conked  
>out on my shoulder pretty much bombed any chance of that happening. You know<br>she drools in her sleep? Well, obviously I know - I just happened to find out the hard way, and I now had a cream puff-sized wet spot on my shoulder.

_LOVELY._

"Alright Stella, you'll NEVER guess  
>this one."<p>

"It's a tree, Andre. The next one's a tree, and the one after that - A TREE."

"Man, how do you know that?"

I shrugged. "Girl's gut feeling. That's how I know."

All of a sudden, Kurt chirped, "We're here!"

Andre and I immediately stopped what we were doing, and looked out the front window.

There was the lake house, set in front of the lake, but set back slightly into the trees encircling it.

I'll be honest, it was a pretty big  
>house.<p>

As soon as the car had come to a stop, I undid my seatbelt, got out, and gawked in awe at the insanely beautiful sight before me. I suddenly found it hard to believe that I was staying HERE for the entire weekend.

"Charlie, you seeing this?" I breathed.

No answer.

Andre, who'd found a spot beside me, exhaled through his nose slowly.

"I'll wake her up," he sighed. He then climbed into the backseat, and started poking  
>his sister's cheek.<p>

"Charlotte...CCChhhaaarrrlllooottteee...Charlotte, I'll  
>tell Jason Evers you like him if you don't wake up right now."<p>

That did it; the moment Andre mentioned Jason Evers (whoever the heck he was),

Charlie jolted awake, and stared at her brother in wide-eyed shock.  
>"How do you know that?"<p>

Andre simply grinned. "I have my ways."

Well, okay then. - italicized

"So, who's Jason Evers?" I asked Charlie with a sly grin as she crawled sleepily out of the car.

Her face turned red. "Nobody," she said quickly. "C'mon."

By now, the others had parked their cars next to the MacKenzies, and four of the adults were hassling Rob.

"It's nice you drove your piggy bank here!" Lenny snickered as he climbed out of his Yukon.

Looking behind my back, I suddenly found it hard not to laugh. Rob's car happened to be one of those Smart cars that was practically the size of a postage stamp. It honest-to-god looked like an oversized blue piggy bank.

Marcus made note of that, too, and added with a laugh, "Hey, Rob's car's an Oompa Loompa, too!"

I shook my head. Oh, Marcus...the man was pure evil sometimes.

"Seriously Stella, isn't this cool or what?"

I was brought out of my trance-like thoughts, and back into the real world. I grinned, and nodded. "Yeah, it really is."

"This is cool?" Greg asked skeptically as he walked up beside me.

Huh...was it me, or did this kid happen to find a way to stand next to me every time I looked? Good grief...

Irritably, I responded, "Well, GREG FEDER, not all of us have the money to go  
>to Hawaii every summer."<p>

"I go to Colorado during the summer," he corrected me haughtily.

I groaned in exasperation. "Whatever!"

We continued walking towards the front entrance - well, until me, Donna, and Charlie had the crap scared out of us by the gonzo-sized bug zapper on the front porch.

Startled, we jumped back; Charlie towards her brother, Donna towards Keith, and me towards - yep, you guessed it - Greg. Of all the people

I could've gone to for a little distance from that bug zapper, I had to go to  
>the Hollywood brat.<p>

Surprisingly, his gut instincts kicked  
>in, and he somehow managed to catch me<br>by the waist with one arm. He then proceeded to hold me captive for a couple of seconds in his one arm, which, truth be told, I didn't mind at all.

Marcus coughed then, and immediately ended that "magic" moment between me and  
>Greg. Both of our faces turned a lovely shade of strawberry red, and I hastily pried his arm off my waist.<p>

He swallowed uncomfortably, and brushed his tux  
>jacket off.<p>

JEEZ, that was awkward... - italicized

Lucky for me, Becky turned everybody's attention to her by asking

Lenny what the bug zapper for.  
>"It's getting rid of moths, honey."<p>

She cocked her head to one side, and stared at the machine curiously. "Where's  
>it taking them?"<p>

"Hell," Marcus told her flatly.

"Don't say that." I then gave him a don't-argue-with-me look.

He nodded quickly. "I'm sorry. Not hell, Mexico."

I smacked my forehead. Eesh, he was dense.

Lenny tried to give his daughter a better - and more appropriate, for that matter - explanation of what the bug zapper was for. "It's giving them electricity so they fall asleep, uh...electrically."

"It's electrocuting them?"

"No, sweetheart, no!"  
>Another zap from the machine told Becky differently.<p>

She looked absolutely horrified now. "But daddy, they're dying!" she cried.

Charlie and Donna had the same look of horror on their faces now. "IT'S KILLING THEM?"

I quirked an eyebrow. "You honestly didn't know that?"

Charlie shook her head. "No!"

Yet another zap, and yet another cry of "Daddy, no!" from Becky.

By then,Lenny couldn't take his daughter's protests anymore, so with a sigh, he went up, and unplugged the bug zapper.

"Look, they're alright, I promise you."

Just to humor her, he plucked a moth off the zapper, and tossed it in the air. It immediately dropped to the ground. Lenny bit his lip. "See? Still sleeping."

Greg rolled his eyes. "It's dead, dad."  
>For that, Roxanne pinched his bicep.<p>

_Ooh, you got powned._.

"Ooh, a porch swing!" Mama Ronzoni gushed from the back of our group before making a break for it, and knocking Keith over in the process. "I know what I'm doing this weekend!"

She stepped directly on the moth Lenny had tossed in the air, which elicited an oh-well look from him.

"It's dead now," he said under his breath.

Just then, Rob appeared behind the front doors, and threw them open in a very dramatic fashion. "Welcome back to 1978, everybody - the lake house!"

We all walked in, and just stared; there was a huge kitchen with a fully stocked fridge, a big living room with a big fireplace, and an  
>Adirondacks-inspired dining room. I'll be honest, the place was just flat-out<br>GORGEOUS.

Greg and Keith, on the other hand, thought otherwise.

"Is this like an Outward Bound thing?" Greg said, his nose scrunched up in slight disgust.

"Yeah, this is like an episode of Lost."Added Keith

I looked at the two of them. They honestly had to be kidding with this crap.

God, I'll be surprised if you two make it through the night alive. -  
>italicized<p>

"Alright, so who's getting what room?"

"Actually, I made a map of who gets which room," Rob explained to everybody.

"I took the liberty of reserving the room with the water bed for Gloria and myself."

"Ooh, you're gonna do the backstroke tonight!"

It took every single ounce of self-control in me not to to just barf; and from  
>the looks of it, Charlie was having the same issue.<p>

Donna suddenly looked excited. "I wanna go swimming with you guys!"

It got EXTREMELY quiet all of a sudden. The kid honestly had no idea that they  
>were talking about something COMPLETELY different.<p>

"Oh honey, we're not really going swimming," Gloria smiled. "What I mean is-"

Me and Charlie got to covering the little kids' ears. Mrs. Lamansoff made like  
>us, and clapped her hands over Donna's ears.<p>

"It's okay, she doesn't need to know what that means. I don't even know what you mean."

"Oh, I do," Marcus piped up before he made a barfing noise.

"Uh...can we go back to picking rooms, please?" I asked uneasily.

Lenny nodded. "Yeah, that would be good."

"Rob, could you take us on a tour?" Mrs. Lamansoff added."Oh yes, I'd love to. Gloria was just trying to be cool." He then got out of  
>his seat, and started walking. Like sheep, we followed closely behind.<p>

"Alright, I need a room close to the bathroom!" Eric piped up.

Pretty soon, everybody was chipping in room requests. "I want a room FARTHEST  
>away from Stella," Greg said, who was - AGAIN - standing right next to me.<p>

_Okay, this is really getting on my nerves_.

I glared at him. He glared right back at me.

_Oh, two can play at this game, buddy_.

Knowing that this would just tick him off, I declared, "I want the room CLOSEST to Greg." I smirked triumphantly, enjoying the way his name alone rolled off my tongue.

Whoa, wait - did I say that? Yep, I did. You know what, forget I even said that.

"I KNEW you liked me," Greg snickered.

I sent him another smirk. "In your dreams, Hollywood."

"I'm counting on it."

I rolled my eyes, and continued on with the others.

"Okay, here's the big daddy," Rob stated as he opened a door on our right. "The master bedroom."

I'll be honest, it was beautiful; there was a big iron-wrought bed positioned on the right, and a bay window with a large seat on the left. It had hardwood  
>floors, and the walls were this soft, baby-ish pink. I suddenly envied whoever was lucky enough to stake a claim in it.<p>

Eric lightly stroked his beard. "You know what? Lenny should have  
>that. Lenny should have the room."<p>

"I second that," I said. I might hate both his sons (Greg, in particular), but Lenny was a nice guy, and he had, after all, rented out the lake house. If anyone deserved the master bedroom, it was him.

Roxanne seized the opportunity, and started strutting towards the room. Lenny quickly stopped her though. "Honey, honey - c'mon, let the kids have it. It's  
>a fun time for kids to be together and to do kid things."<p>

She silently - albeit reluctantly - stepped to the side, and let us run into the room. I made sure I was as far ahead of Greg as humanly possible, and he  
>made sure he was far behind me.<br>I heard Marcus chuckle outside.

"You might wanna keep Stella and Greg away from each other," he mumbled in a voice just loud enough for me to hear.

I mentally facepalmed myself. He was gonna have a ball with this, I just knew it.

I watched Greg and Keith stare at the TV by the window. It was your average tube TV, but the way they were looking at it, you'd think it was a Commodore 64.

"Hey dad, what's the big box on the back of the TV?"

"Well, that's the rest of the TV," Lenny told Greg. "They didn't always have flat-screens back then, sport."

Keith snorted. "Wow, that is some stone-age SHIZNIT."

I looked at Charlie. "Shiznit?" I mouthed.

She only shrugged.

Lenny scratched the back of his neck. "Uh, yeah...that's wack." He then left us to our business, as did the other adults.

As soon as the adults had disappeared from our fields of vision, I panned the  
>room. "Alright, we're gonna need some sorta' sleeping arrangement."<p>

"Girls get floor, guys get bed!"

I stared at Greg, and shook my head. "Please, spare me. There's no way that's happening."

"'Sides, there are more boys than there are girls," Donna wisely pointed out.

"So, girls should get the bed, and guys should get the floor."

"No, GUYS get the bed."

"No, GIRLS get it," I insisted.

"Guys."

"Girls."

"Guys!"

"Girls!"

It took us both a second to realize that our faces were separated by a space of only three inches.

The moment we did, I'm pretty sure about fifty billion  
>butterflies cut loose in our stomachs.<p>

I looked into Greg's eyes - they were green, and they had small brown flecks in them. I then looked at him as he licked his lips, then as he looked at me.

All of a sudden, the four-year old with the faux-hawk bolted into the room, screaming at the top of his lungs. He then wrapped himself around my legs, and  
>clung to them tightly.<p>

I stooped down to look at him. "What's wrong?"

"There's a monster outside!" he cried.

_Monster? Okay..._

Now curious to see what this "monster" was, I gently pried the kid off my legs, and stuck my head into the hallway.

Everybody was gawking at Mama Ronzoni, who looked just fine - well, until I got down to her feet. THEN, I saw what had freaked the kid out so badly.

Good God, the woman had a bunion on her right toe the size of a flippin' football.

_Oh, GROSS!_

I shuddered intensely, and ducked back into the safety of the kids bedroom.

Boy, this was gonna be a LONG Fourth of July weekend.

* * *

><p>AN So it's now summer for me! So updates should be quicker (Hopefully) unless i have writers block or go on a trip. Next week from Wedsday-Saturday don't expect updates i going on a trip so yeah thats it.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N all of you must hate me for not updating any of my stories :( I feel bad, my computer went crazy on me and stopped working, but it works now so Im back! Now onto the story!

Disclaimer:Don't own anything except for Stella and some of the little extra scenes and what not :)

_Stella's thoughts_

* * *

><p>Chapter 4<p>

About an hour after the whole Mama Ronzoni fiasco, I was on the verge of losing my mind - why, you may ask?

Well, for the past hour, I'd been staring out the window of the kids bedroom at the yard and lake in front of me,wanting nothing more than to go outside and enjoy the weekend the right way.

Problem was, I was - for some weird reason - too chicken to actually do it.

So, I stayed inside, and silently observed what the others were doing.

I started with Greg, Keith and Andre - yet again, they were shooting things and chopping people up with chainsaws.

I rolled my eyes, and moved on to Donna- she was sprawled out on the bed, watching High School Musical on a travel DVD player.

As for Charlie, she was watching the boys playing their game from the side with this zombie-ish sort of look on her face.

I looked out the window again, then down at the clothes I was wearing - a white racerback tank, a dark-blue plaid button-down, a beat-up pair of shorts, and a pair of equally beat-up navy-blue Chuck Taylor low-tops - clothes  
>practically made for running around outside.<p>

I couldn't take it anymore. I wasn't about to sit around and waste my entire Fourth of July weekend inside.

So, I made my way towards the door.

Just before I left though, I turned to Charlie. "Hey Charlie, I'm heading outside. Wanna come with me?"

She shook her head, not really bothering to take her eyes off of the TV screen.

"I'll stay in here, Stella," she said flatly, then went back to  
>watching the boys play that stupid game.<p>

_Wow, some friend you are, Charlie_.

I sighed, shook my head, and headed for the front porch. The moment I stepped through the front door, I was hit with a wave of fresh air; it smelled AWESOME, like maple trees and sunshine and earth. I LOVED IT.

All of a sudden, a wheezy, choky kind of cough that reminded me of a turkey snapped me out of my thoughts.

Alarmed, I looked around, trying to figure out where the coughing was coming from.

It seemed to be coming from where Lenny, Marcus, Rob, Kurt and Eric were sitting.

Oh god, PLEASE tell me it wasn't one of them making that noise.  
>When the coughing started again, I noted that none of them had doubled over in their lawn chairs.<p>

I sighed in relief, thankful that it wasn't them.

I saw Marcus tilt his head to one side. "Lamansoff, what's up with your dog? It sounds like Steven Hawking or something..."

One of my eyebrows shot up. A DOG was making the turkey noise?

Curious, I ran down to the guys to see what was going on. Sure enough, there was a dog was sitting in front of them, coughing like a turkey in all its glory.

I shook my head; dogs didn't make sounds like that unless they were choking. Maybe it was choking on something. But then, how come the guys were just sitting there?

I looked at Eric with a bewildered look on my face. "Is your dog okay? What's he doing?"

"Oh, Curly's fine. He's just barking at whatever runs by," he shrugged  
>nonchalantly.<p>

"Uh...is he supposed to sound like that when he barks?"

Eric nodded. "Unfortunately, yeah."

_I shook my head. Weirdest barking I've ever heard... _

"What happened to him?" I asked Eric.

"Curly had his vocal cords clipped," he explained. "Neighbor filed a  
>complaint, and it was either clip the cords or put Curly down."<p>

Kurt looked at the dog, and snorted. "Wrong choice."

"Hey, he's part of the family, you know!"

Lenny chuckled. "Oh yeah, imagine when a burglar comes over - he must run in terror. Wow, what's that turkey doing in the house?"

I rolled my eyes.

_Oish, real mature, guys_.

While the guys segued into another conversation - one that I preferred NOT to join, thank you

I sat down next to Curly, and absent-mindedly ran my hand over his back as I stared at the lake in front of me.

It really was beautiful, the kind of beautiful that you'd find in a movie; the water was deep blue, and sunlight glimmered over it, making the water look like there was liquid glass floating on top of it.

The sky hanging over it was a couple shades lighter, and it was dotted with big fat clouds and flocks of birds soaring across them.

Days and places like these were what really made summer so great.

Really, they made it EXTREMELY hard for me to stay inside and do nothing.

Speaking of staying inside and doing nothing, I could hear Greg and Keith  
>shooting things from the bedroom.<p>

From what I could gather, they were doing some sort of tag-team deathmatch.

They were doing a "good" job, too - the game had declared "CHAINSAW MASSACRE, FIFTY POINTS!" and made it sound like a good thing to get one of those.

The hand that wasn't petting Curly curled into a fist. Those boys really were insufferable.

Lenny must've thought so, too, as he commented, "Why are they still inside?

Why don't they come outside and enjoy the lake or the woods?"

Eric hummed in agreement. "There wasn't a time of day that we WEREN'T outside. We were NEVER inside." He turned slightly in his lawn chair to look at  
>me.<p>

"I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised to see you out here, Stella."

I shrugged. "I don't like being inside that much. I like being able to run  
>around and get dirty," I half-smiled.<p>

"Wait a sec, I thought you lived in Manhattan," Marcus frowned.

"So? Living in the city didn't stop me from going to Central Park everyday."

"You could teach my kids a lesson there, Stella." Lenny shook his head, and hoisted himself out of his chair. "I can't take this anymore! Stella, c'mon -you're coming with me."

_Oh, this should be good._

We walked into the house, and headed for the kids' room.

When we were by the door, Lenny looked at me, and quietly told me that I was going to unplug the TV, and then he was gonna haul the boys out. After that, it was my job to get the girls out.

I grinned impishly. This was gonna be VERY good.

I slipped through the door, and stepped in front of the TV for a second.

Keith and Andre growled. "Dude, Stella, get outta the way! I can't see!" Andre snapped peevishly.

_Cripe, the house could be on fire and you'd all still be focused on this dumb game._

I smiled sweetly at him, then continued walking towards the outlet the TV was plugged into. I then bent over, and grasped the plug in my hand tightly.

As soon as I did, Greg noticed, and glared dangerously at me. "Stella, don't you DARE."

I blinked, unfazed by the dark look on his face. "Haul butt outside Feder, and I won't unplug your precious TV."

Keith growled again, only louder this time. "You unplug the TV, and you're really gonna get it."

I ignored Keith's masked threat, and shook my head. "I'm not budging. I don't CARE if I piss you off, Keith - you're short, unimportant, and too attached to the stupid game. Now, outside before I kill the TV." Keith shook his head.

"See Greg? I TOLD you the chick was bad news, bro."

"Yeah man, she doesn't respect our needs, either," Andre added.

I glared at Andre, and subconsciously balled my hands up into fists. "Don't push it, buddy."

"Whatever Stella," Keith sighed impatiently. "Let go of the plug and get back in the kitchen."

_Oh, HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT! _

That did it. Without hesitating, I yanked the plug out of the outlet, and shut the game and TV down.

"STELLA!" Keith shouted.

Greg looked like he was ready to kill me. "My high score!"

I smirked, and twirled the plug in my hand. "What can I say? You boys were being difficult."

Keith looked like he was ready to hit me, but luckily, Lenny came in and threw him and his older brother over his shoulders before he could.

"That's it! No more video games, no more cell phones, no more texting!" he declared as he marched outside with me following closely behind.

"Just from now on, while we're here, stay outside and play!" He then unceremoniously dropped Greg and Keith on the ground, and stooped over to catch his breath for a moment.

_I know, Lenny. Your kids' egos way a TON._

Keith and Greg were looking at Lenny like he'd just gunned down a puppy.

"W-What are we supposed to do?" Greg whined.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh my god, do what normal people do and run around! DUH!"

Lenny was equally frustrated. "Just play like normal kids! C'mon, move it!"Lenny's eyes suddenly glimmered. "Hey, where's Becky?"

While he ran and the other two with kids ran off to grab the rest of the kids,

Greg stared at me coldly. "Wow, nice going Stella."

I snorted. "Hey Greg, do the words "BITE ME" mean anything to you?"

"Oh, shut up!"

Before I could counter with something snappy, Lenny, Eric and Kurt were crowding me, Greg and Keith together with the other kids, then shoving us towards the woods. As we were being cattle-prodded off to god-knows-where,

Charlie came up beside me with a nervous frown on her face. "What are we doing?" she whispered into my ear.

"Dunno, but I'm a little scared now."

We'd been walking for a grand total of five minutes when it started getting  
>hot out.<p>

Not wanting to deal with the button-down anymore, I peeled it off, tied it around my waist, and wore the tank top.

Greg had done the same with his sweater, but he'd also taken to whining and complaining like a two-year old.

"My feet hurt!" he groused.

"Oh, suck it up, Princess! We've only been walking for five minutes!"

Greg shook his head. "We've only been walking for five minutes!" he said mockingly in a borderline-falsetto voice.

"Real mature, Greg."

"Real mature, Greg," he repeated in the high voice again.

_Ooh, if he does that one more time, I'm gonna clock him._

Thankfully, Greg stopped, and we continued walking.

Even better, Kurt took my mind off of Greg and how dweeby he was acting by telling us about the stuff he and the others used to do when they were kids.

"Greg, when we were kids, your dad used to talk us into doing the craziest stuff." He chuckled. "I remember one time, we got shower curtains, tied 'em to shopping carts and went shopping cart sailing."

"Wait, how did you guys steer?" Andre asked in confusion.

"We didn't," Eric answered with a grin.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Alright, so then how did you stop?"

"You just smashed into something. That was the fun part!" Lenny told us like it was common knowledge.

I laughed. "That explains SO much."

Marcus chuckled. "We used to shoot bottle rockets at each other - you'd always go for the guy's face 'cause you wanted to blind him."

I looked at Marcus weirdly. "Demented much?"

Lenny shot Marcus a you-know-better look. "Okay, no. Let's not do that."

Marcus nodded, and quickly slashed his hands across his neck. "Yeah kids, let's not do that. Erase, reboot."

_Well now, look at the big brain on Marcus_.

Lenny stopped to pick up a stick, then placed it in a tree horizontally.

"Look, you guys can make a tree fort. I'll help you get started."

I clicked my tongue. "Looks more like an owl perch, if you ask me," I  
>commented.<p>

Lenny shrugged. "Hey, it's a start."

Eric smiled thoughtfully. "You know Stella, Rob lived in one of these for a year."

We all turned to Rob, looking for more detail. His face darkened slightly.

"My dad took away my roller-skates," he said in a low voice

"Uh-oh, Vietnam flashback!"

For that, Marcus got the death glare from Rob.

All of a sudden, Lenny exclaimed, "Wait a minute, are you kidding me?"

Greg glanced at his dad funny. "What?"

He didn't give us an answer; he just started running towards something with this look of pure glee on his face.

Curious, we all followed.

Seconds later, we stopped at a tree overlooking the lake. A rope hung from one of the branches.

_This is what Lenny was so excited about? I shook my head. Pretty  
>neanderthal form of entertainment<em>.

Looking around at the other adults, I was quick to notice that they all had the same joyful smile on their faces. Eric, I swear to god, he looked like he'd died and gone to heaven, he was so happy.

"Rope on a tree, baby!" he cheered.  
>"You know what that means?"<p>

"We get to hang ourselves?" Charlie piped up, her voice oozing sarcasm.

"I'll go first!" Greg announced.

"By all means, Greg, go right ahead!" I then shoved him towards the rope.

Lenny groaned. "Nobody's hanging themselves!" He stared at us incredulously, and motioned to the rope and the lake. "I mean, you see a rope and a lake and that doesn't make you wanna go nuts?"

Greg shook his head. "No."

I nodded in agreement. "For once in my life, I'm actually gonna agree with Greg."

He laughed when I said that, and turned to me with a smirk on his face. "Look at that - we actually agreed on something," he said playfully.

I batted him on the arm, and giggled.

_Whoa, wait a sec - since when do I giggle? _

Just then, the sound of the adults cheering and egging Eric on snapped me back into the real world, and I watched as he made a beeline for the rope.

"Who wants to see a double flip?" he asked everyone as he clambered onto a rock with the rope in his hands.

Our response to the question was a loud whoop.

We quickly got behind the rock, and watched and cheered as Eric leapt off the rock and flew over the lake.

"Drop! Drop! Drop!" we yelled at him as he swung through the air.

Watching him though, it suddenly became clear that he wasn't gonna let go of the rope.

Eric chickened out when he saw how high he was swinging, and clung to the rope like his life depended on it.

Our cries of "Drop! Drop! Drop!" now changed to "Let go! Let go! Let go!"

"I can't let go! I'm too scared!" Eric yelled in response.

A split-second after the words left his mouth, he faceplanted into a tree trunk - one wince - let go of the rope, hit the ground - two winces - and somersaulted into a cluster of bushes.

I leaned forward to get a good look at Eric, and I bit my lip when I saw him sprawled on the ground like roadkill.

_Ouch_.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Keith had this look of absolute ecstasy on his face."That...was...AWESOME!"

Right at that moment, Eric stood up, shrieking and howling and clutching his leg. "OH MY GOD, THE BONE'S STICKING OUT!" he yelled, his voice cracking and squeaking a couple times.

We all glanced down at his leg - sure enough, his thighbone seemed to be sticking out of his leg.

Disgusted, I clapped a hand over my mouth, and forced myself not to retch right then and there.

And that's when Eric started laughing. His belly shook as he cackled and showed us his "broken bone" - a Y-shaped stick.

My jaw dropped. "DUDE! NOT COOL!"

Eric only laughed harder, and pointed at me. "Oh Stella, I got you big time!"

I stuck my tongue out at him, and tried to get my nerves under control.

I scowled; nothing ticked me off more than when people did stuff like that. I hated having the crap scared outta me on purpose; this was no exception.

All of a sudden, Becky pointed at something close to where Eric had landed.

"Daddy!" she cried. "That bird is hurt!"

I looked over at where she was pointing, and to my surprise (and slight horror, for that matter), there was a mourning dove with a gimpy wing.

_Holy crap, I can't believe that bird's not dead after getting squashed by  
>Eric<em>.

"Oh my god, I'll get a shoebox!"

I immediately ran down to the dove, and crouched beside it.

"Pretty lucky, for a bird," I muttered to myself as I went to untie my button-down from around my waist.

Just as I was about to undo the knot, I felt a hand on my forearm - Greg's hand, to be exact. I felt a small shiver zip down my spine.

"Here," he said before untying his sweater from around his waist and handing it to me. "Use mine."

I nodded silently in thanks, then I placed the sweater under the bird, and lifted it up as Lenny came down with the shoebox.

I quickly carried the bird over to him, and gently deposited it into the box.

As soon as it was inside, me, Lenny, Greg and the others hurried back to the house.

When we got back, Eric's wife Sally greeted us at the door; Lenny gave her a run-down of what had happened, then handed the shoebox off to her.

As soon as she had it, Sally took the box into another room and told us that she was gonna reset the bird's wing.

My brows knit together. "Not to sound rude or anything, but do you know what you're doing?"

"Of course, honey. Now don't you worry - I'll make sure our friend's okay."

Then, she disappeared from sight, and left us to do our own thing.

_I really do hope that woman knows what she's doing_.

I felt a tug on my arm. I looked to my left and down, and came face-to-face with Becky.

She looked up at me with a worried glint in her eyes. "Stella, the birdie IS gonna be okay, right?"

Honestly, I had no idea what was gonna happen to that bird - for all I knew, its wing could be permanently busted. For Becky's sake though, I assumed that it would be fine.

I smiled lightly at her. "Yeah Becky, the birdie's gonna be okay."

"Promise?"

"Promise." I squeezed her shoulders gently. "Hey, do you like High School  
>Musical?" She nodded.<p>

"Well, I think Donna's watching it right now...do you wanna join her?"

A smile broke out on Becky's face. She nodded happily, then ran off to find Donna.

Once she was gone, I made my way back to the kids' bedroom, too drained to really do anything else now.

When I walked in, I found Greg lying stomach down on the bed, silently flipping through TV channels.

He must've heard me, because he glanced at me, and (unlike the icy glare and order to go away that I'd been expecting) gave me the "hello" nod.

_Whoa...Greg's not acting like a twit. THAT'S new._

I sent him a one-sided smile, and made my way over to the bed. "I see you plugged the TV back in," I noted as I laid down next to him in the same manner.

"Yep."

I looked at the TV screen. "Anything good on?"

Greg shook his head. "So far, no - just a bunch of lifetime movies and bad cartoons."

He stopped channel-surfing for a moment. "What was up with you and my sister out there?"

"She just wanted to know if the bird was gonna be alright," I told him quietly. "I told her it would be fine, then that Donna was watching High School Musical, and suggested that she go watch it with her."

"Did she actually do what she was told?"

"Um...yeah, she did," I said cautiously, suddenly feeling like I was walking on eggshells for some reason. "Took off to go find Donna as soon as I mentioned she had HSM."

Greg just breathed out through his nose, and rested his chin in his hands.

"Lucky you. Becky never listens to me or Keithie when we tell her to do something." He closed his eyes, and shook his head. "She's such a brat..."

I shrugged passively. "You're only saying that 'cause she's your sister." I sent him an easy-going smirk. "And you know, she might not act like such a brat if you act nicer to her."

"Touché."

There was a long beat of silence between us. Greg went back to  
>channel-surfing, and I watched as show after show flashed by in the blink of an eye.<p>

After a couple minutes, Greg tapped me on the shoulder.

When I turned to look at him, he stuck his hand out and offered me a soft half-smile.

"Friends?"

I blinked. Me, Stella Connelly, friends with Greg Feder... I figured it  
>couldn't hurt.<p>

I grasped his hand. "Yeah, I guess."

He grinned. "Awesome," he said before crawling to the edge of the bed, and  
>scooping up two PS3 controllers. He tossed one to me. "You wanna play?"<p>

I laughed. "I'm good. I don't wanna get addicted to it like you did."

"Relax, you won't."

_Why not? _

I hesitantly picked up the controller, and turned it on. "What game were you  
>playing, exactly?"<p>

"Gears of War. Why?"

I bit my lip. "I dunno...I hear the gameplay gets pretty gory," I said  
>uneasily.<p>

"Aw, c'mon, please?" Greg then proceeded to give me his version of the  
>bambi-eyed look.<p>

_Damn, he's got me_.

"FINE, I'll play with you, but promise me you'll never make that face again,"  
>I teased. "It's not a good look for you, Feder."<p>

"Hey, I'll have you know I've been perfecting this look for YEARS."

"I'm sure you have..."

He rolled his eyes, then smiled at me impishly. "Watch and learn, Stella. I'm  
>about to rock your world with this baby."<p>

* * *

><p><strong>*Charlie's POV* <strong>

Charlie and Andre were walking to the kitchen to grab a snack.

The two were walking past the kids room when they heard laughing come from inside. Curious,Charlie stop walking, and peeked into the bedroom.

Greg and Stella were lying side-by-side, playing video games, and for once, they weren't fighting over something pointless. Charlie's jaw practically dropped to the floor.

"Andre!" she hissed to her brother.

"C'mere, look!"

With his hands up in the air, Andre silently crept over to where his sister was standing, and looked briefly at the two on the bed.

He looked at Charlie, and shrugged passively. "Eh, so? It's nothing special."

For that, he was backhanded on the arm by Charlie.

"It's something special!" she whispered back in a snappish voice. "It's adorable, and it's about time they started having fun!"

"Okay, okay! I get it! It's sweet!" He rubbed the area where Charlie had  
>smacked him tenderly. "Can we get something to eat now, please? I'm hungry."<p>

"No, forget that! Lets get outta here!" Charlie said before she started dragging Andre away from the kids room and back down the hall.

As she did, she silently pumped her fist. Things were suddenly in her favor now.

_Getting them together is gonna be easier than I thought_.

* * *

><p>AN So do you hate me? I hope not! Cause I love you guys! Only three, well four chapters now, and twenty four reviews! That's awesome! I can't take all the credit though I want to say thanks to phoenixfire53 for beta-ing this story! Reviews are love:)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

AN:Sorry i haven't dated. I've been really busy. I will TRY to update faster though. One more thing Stella and Greg maybe firends but they sitll pick on eachother like everyone does plus we all know they flirting:) on to the story!

* * *

><p>Several hours and several rounds of Gears of War later, I managed to beat Greg in one free-for-all round after getting my ass sorely kicked by him in all of the previous rounds. The moment I saw that I'd won, I whooped loudly, and started jumping up and down on the bed like an absolute nutcase.<p>

"I WON! I WON! I WON! STELLA CONNELLY'S THE WINNER, AND GREG FEDER'S THE LOOOS-ER! I BEAT THE LOOOS-ER!" I yelled gleefully as jumped spastically around a now-laughing Greg. I didn't care if he was laughing at or with me, or if I looked like an idiot; I'd finally won a round, and – I think – I'd done it without him purposely sucking. Really, there was no reason for me _not _to be freaking out like I was right now.

After another minute or so of jumping around and celebrating my victory, I figured that enough was enough, and so I stopped jumping. Greg, on the other hand, kept on laughing.

I cocked my head to one side. "What?"

He drew in a deep breath, and tried to get a hold of himself. "I'm sorry, you just… Oh my god, you should've seen yourself, Stella – you seriously looked like Tom Cruise when he went on Oprah that one time." He stifled another bout of laughter before continuing. "You were spazzing out – like, _really _spazzing out."

"Hey, you can't blame me! You'd been handing my ass to me left and right, then outta nowhere, I get lucky and – probably – won that round without you having to suck on purpose!"

Greg shrugged. "Maybe I did suck on purpose. That, or maybe you did get lucky and show me how it's done," he said as he rolled off the bed and started walking towards the hall. "You pick how you see it, Stella."

For a second, I only stared at him as he nonchalantly strolled out of the bedroom, and made his way towards the kitchen.

_Maybe I did suck on purpose? Ooh, Greg, you dweeb…_

Now just a _little _bit peeved that this probably the case, I growled softly, leapt off the bed, and followed Greg into the kitchen, where I found him grabbing a water bottle out of the fridge. When I stepped in, he quickly turned to look at me, then back at the fridge. He reached for another bottle. "Water?" he asked.

"No thanks – but thanks for the offer," I said politely as I hopped up on the island counter in the middle of the kitchen.

"Yeah, no prob."

_Alright, enough of the small talk._

"Greg, did you let me win back there?"

Greg shook his head, leaned against the island, and took a swig of water. "No, I didn't. I wasn't paying attention that round, and you got me puh-retty good."

I snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Ah, quit being stubborn-"

"Hey, don't insult me!" I exclaimed jokingly. "Whatever happened to us being friends?"

"C'mon Stella, friends diss each other all the time," Greg countered with a smirk on his face.

I stuck my tongue out at him like a bratty three-year old. "Yeah, maybe regular friends do that, but I'm not so sure about best friends."

For a moment, Greg stared at me like I'd just up and explained Einstein's Quantum Theory to him; at first, I was tempted to ask him what I'd done, but then it hit me.

_Maybe regular friends do that, but I'm not so sure about best friends._

I mentally kicked myself as the thought passed through my head.

_Best friends? What the hell, Stella? Playing Gears of War for several hours doesn't make you best friends with Greg Feder! Get your head on straight! _

"I'm sorry, forget what I just said," I mumbled as my face turned an embarrassed shade of crimson. "That sounded really stupid-"

"You really want to be best friends with me?"

I blinked, puzzled by Greg's response.

_Okay, not what I was expecting…_

I swallowed, and nodded sheepishly. "Well…yeah. I mean, for those last few hours that we didn't spend fighting, you were actually…kinda' cool."

Greg smiled, and hopped up on the island next to me. "Yeah, you too... I'll be honest though, I'm sorta' gonna miss you being mad at me. You're pretty cute when you get pissy-" His face flushed all of a sudden, and he clapped a hand over his mouth. "Did I just...? Oh... Damn, I did..."

_Wow. Greg Feder seriously just called me cute. _

"I'm pretty cute, huh?" I quirked an eyebrow and looked at Greg with with a sly, one-sided smile on my face. "What's that supposed to mean, Greg?"

"Nothing," he said quickly.

I scoffed under my breath. _Yep, I'm sure it does._

Luckily for Greg, Lenny stuck his head in the kitchen and instructed us to get in a car. When we asked what for, Lenny told us that we were going out to dinner. I shrugged, and slid off the counter; as for Greg, he got off, and all but ran for the front door, muttering obsenities under his breath and berating himself for being a retard.

I only shook my head, and yanked off my socks in favor of a pair of navy flip-flops. If Greg was gonna let things like that slip with meaning to, then things were gonna get interesting, _very _quickly.

* * *

><p><strong> Greg's P.O.V.<strong>

Greg was about ready to die as he bolted out of the house and towards his car, he was so embarrassed. God, how could he have been so _stupid_? Casually calling Stella Connelly cute... What the hell was wrong with him?

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he silently berated himself. "What are you DOING?"

"What _are _you doing anyway, man?"

The suddenness of one Andre MacKenzie nearly made Greg yell in startled surprise. He glared at the boy briefly, then shook his head. "Doesn't matter - and it doesn't concern you."

Andre snorted. "Yeah - may not concern me, but from the looks of it, I think it concerns Stella and my sister."

_Wait, what?_

Greg glanced over to the left to see Stella standing beside Kurt's car with Charlotte, whispering hurriedly into her ear. From where he was standing, he could hear snippets of their conversation - conversation that revolved around his screw-up from a few moments ago.

_Oh shit, she's telling Charlotte! _He mentally smacked himself immediately following the thought. _Well, no duh, genius - they're best friends! _

"Okay man, deep breath... Just act cool... Act like you didn't call Stella cute... You guys are friends now, and friends _don't do that,_" he hissed under his breath. He couldn't screw this up, not now. He couldn't, and he wouldn't.

_Just act like you don't like her. Hell, act like she doesn't even exist. _

* * *

><p><strong> Stella's P.O.V.<strong>

"He did _WHAT?_" Charlie shrieked as soon as I'd finished telling her what had happened.

I pursed my lips. "He called me cute." I shook my head, and exhaled through my nose. "Cute - can you believe that?"

Charlie's mouth might as well have dropped to the ground, she was so shocked. "Huh... Wait, do you like Greg like _that_?"

"Dude... Quite frankly, I don't know..." I sighed before I climbed into the car. Charlotte followed suit, and sat down beside me just as Kurt started up the engine, and we zipped off to dinner.

We were on the road for a grand total of eight minutes before we pulled into the parking lot of Woodman's restaurant. By then, it was almost dark out - almost eight-fifty, exactly.

Anyway, we all waltzed in, and asked for a table for eighteen. The hostess blinked, then she barked at somebody to put a couple tables together and to grab some chairs. She then looked at us, and smiled tiredly. "Sorry folks - your table will be ready in just a few minutes.

A few minutes later, the hostess led us to our table (situated close to the restrooms and a passable arcade) and we sat down - all the adults were on one side, and the kids were on the other, with the Asian lady who looked like a nanny in the middle of the kids bench.

I was about to make a move to sit between Charlie and Donna, but Charlie grabbed my arm and held me back. "Switch places with Andre," she told me.

"Wha-"

"Just do it!" she hissed.

"Okay, okay! I surrender!" I held my hands up, and went to go boot Andre from his seat. "Alright Andy, you're trading places with..." I looked to see who was sitting to the left of him, and for a second, I almost forgot what I was going to say.

Greg was sitting to his left, and in a few seconds, _I _was gonna be sitting next to him.

_Oh, great. _

"...Me..." I finished weakly.

_Charlotte MacKenzie, I'm gonna murder you in your sleep tonight. _

"My sister bossing you around?"

I nodded. "Yep... She sure is."

He snickered to himself. "Might as well give her what she wants," he said before he got out of his seat. "It's all yours, Stella."

"Thanks." I carefully sat in between Greg and Donna, and sighed. God, this was gonna be awkward.

"Well, if it isn't Stella," I heard Greg say beside me, the smile evident in his voice. To be honest, he didn't seem all that irritated that I'd kicked Andre out of his seat and replaced him.

_Huh, weird..._

"Hey Greg." I said nothing more - I just took a sip of the water that had been placed in front of me, and absent-mindedly swirled the straw around like a martini swizzle stick, listening to the conversations volleying back and forth between the adults and the kids. At one point, I heard Marcus attempt to strike one up with Lenny.

"Hey Lenny, remember when we used to come here in high school after we got _wasted_?"

I rolled my eyes. _And just when I thought his intelligence couldn't sink any lower..._

Donna looked at Marcus with a confused frown on her face. "What's wasted?" she asked as her head tilted to one side.

_You've GOTTA be kidding me._

Lenny's face turned just a _bit _red at the question. "Uh...wasted, kids...is when... Is something that happens when you have...a hankering for ice cream."

_A hankering for ice cream, Lenny? Dude, they're not gonna believe THAT. _

I was surprised though, when Andre stood up with, "I wanna get wasted!" Then Charlie with, "I wanna get totally wasted!" And Donna with, "I wanna get wasted every single day of my life!"

Hearing the three of them declare that made me almost burst out laughing, and I managed to hold it in, but as soon as little Becky yelled, "I wanna get chocolate wasted!" I couldn't help myself - I started cracking up alongside Greg and Keith. _I wanna get chocolate wasted _- hearing that was just PRICELESS.

Eventually, the joke got old, so the three of us stopped laughing, and went back to looking over our menus, although every once in a while, a small giggle managed to worm its way outta my mouth.

Donna looked at me oddly. "What's so funny, Stella? Dontcha' wanna get wasted?"

I shook my head, and smirked. "Nah, you have fun getting wasted, you party animal."

She snorted. "Whatever, your loss."

_Oh, if only you knew, kid..._

Just then, a waitress came over to take our orders. "Alright guys, what can I get you?"

"Alright, you know what, lemme make this easy," Eric piped up. "Eighteen burgers and eighteen fries, okay? And that'll be just for me...what do you guys want?" He cracked a grin before he told the waitress to ignore the joke part. "I'm kidding. That's for everyone. Just put it on my card." He then proceeded to hand her a Visa card.

From the other side of the table, Mama Ronzoni shook her head. "I'm not gonna have any hamburgers," she declared. "I'll take some meat loaf, some calzones - but put the marinara sauce on the side...corn, either on the cob, or whatever you got..."

_Jeez, my stomach hurts just thinking about all that food... Yike..._

Marcus chuckled. "What, are you going to the electric chair?"

"What?"

"No, he's just kidding - Henry the Eighth!" Lenny chimed in.

I rolled my eyes, and leaned over towards Greg. "Your dad's quite the wise guy, Feder," I whispered in his ear.

"Yeah, I know - I live with the guy."

"Ha, I pity you." I then patted him on the shoulder as a joke. Really, I didn't pity him at all - hell, I'd count myself extremely lucky to have a guy like Lenny for a father. He seemed like he genuinely cared about raising his kids right; and _that, _in my book, was the mark of a good parent.

The sound of our waitress asking everybody what they wanted to drink brought me out of my thoughts. From what I could gather, Eric had already ordered for himself and Donna, and was now looking at the four-year old at the other end of the table. "Uh... Bean's still good with milk," he said awkwardly.

_Milk? What milk?_

I looked over at 'Bean' briefly, and there he was - straddling Sally, his face buried in Sally's chest as she breastfed him with a small smile on her face.

I made a face, and shuddered. _Oh - THAT milk. _

Bean paused for a moment to look at Eric. "I want cookies!" he demanded in his high-pitched little kid's voice.

"Ah, cookies and milf," Marcus chimed in with a pervy sorta' look on his face.

_Ugh, Marcus! _I shook my head and shuddered again, wishing like hell that I hadn't heard what he'd said a few seconds ago. _Ignore, ignore, IGNORE..._

Thankfully, the waitress came around and asked me what I wanted to drink. With a relieved smile on my face, I ordered an IBC root beer. She nodded, scribbled my order down on my pad of paper, then moved on to Greg.

"And for you, hon?"

"I'll take a flat water - Voss," he said curtly.

I sighed. _Here comes the Hollywood brat... Why can't you just get a regular water, you dummy?_

The waitress frowned, which caused Greg to huff in annoyance. "You know, _Voss, _or Fiji if you don't have Voss."

Lenny groaned. "Yeah, you know, anything you got is good."

"Yeah, we have outta the faucet."

Greg's face twisted up in slight disgust. "Like from a _hose_?"

"Tap water," the waitress corrected him stiffly.

"What country is that from?" butted in Keith.

I moaned, and covered my eyes with one of my hands. God, one minute, Greg's one of the coolest people I'm friends with, and the next, he's acting like a stuck-up retard again. Why couldn't he just get a normal glass of water and not have to whine about it not being fancy enough for him?

"Oh my god, just get the water! We're done talking about water! Tap water!"

_Ah, thank you Lenny. _

The Asian chick started to get up. "I'll go get the Voss from the b-"

Before she could finish though, Lenny cut her off. "No Rita, just sit down. Uh...study the menu - big test coming up."

At that point, I'd zoned out of the exchange between Lenny, Rita, and quite frankly everybody else - well, except for Greg, whom I turned to with a tight frown on my face.

"What's so great about Voss water?" I asked him, sincerely wanting to know what was so wonderful about the stuff.

Greg shrugged, and gave me a pointed look. "It's really high-end water - it's got great taste, it's super-clean...you know, stuff like that."

"And you were expecting Woodman's to have super-fancy water?"

"Well...yeah."

I sighed. _You sad, sad little human. _

"Hey Stella," Charlie called out to me over Andre and Donna. "I've got cash to play those games that make you spend it all on 'em." As proof, she jingled a plastic bag stuffed with coins and several dollar bills in the air for me to see. "You wanna spend some?"

Up until that point, I was practically bored to tears, so her offer might as well have saved from death by boredom. "Yeah, sure."

We headed over to the games; from what I could see, there was pinball, Pac-Man, air hockey, and a couple of racing and claw games. All in all, nothing special.

I did a quick scan to see what was being occupied. At the moment, every other game except one claw machine was being occupied - Donna seemed to be beating Keith at a round of air hockey (well, that, or he was letting her beat him...if that was the case, then it was pretty damn cute. If not...well, kudos to you, Donna), and Charlie looked pretty intent on playing one of the pinball machines.

"I'm gonna check out that pinball thingy over there," she informed me as she fished out a couple dollars and stuffed them into my hand. "Here's three bucks." Then, she took off for the pinball machine without another word.

I looked down at the money in my hand, then over at the claw game. I sighed. "Might as well..."

I made my way over, and scanned the inside for anything good. To my satisfaction, there was a big plushie in the shape of a minion from _Despicable Me _sitting squarely in the middle. My eyes gleamed with want - I was gonna get that toy. I was gonna get it, no matter how much cash I had to bleed to get it.

I turned one of the dollar bills into some quarters, and shoved two of them into the money slot. Then, I manuevered the claw over to the minion, and dropped it at an angle. To my annoyance, I ended up missing it by a long shot. I scowled, shoved in two more quarters, and tried to get a good grip on the minion, but again, I missed the stupid thing.

Somebody snorted behind me. "Nothing against you, but you suck," the guy said.

I turned around, and found myself looking at a boy - probably around my age - with bright, sideswept blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. The kid was pretty good-looking - quite honestly, he looked a LOT like a younger version of Alexander Ludwig.

I rolled my eyes. "Brilliant observation, Captain Obvious," I replied, my voice dripping with heavy sarcasm.

"Thank you, Sergeant Smartass," he shot back with equal sarcasm. He smirked then. "The name's Sean Redgrave."

"Stella Connelly." I didn't bother looking at him; the guy was getting on my nerves a bit, and so for his sake, I kept my eyes glued on the minion plushie.

He chuckled as he watched me attempt to grab the minion_...again_. "You know," he said, "there _is _an easier way to get the toy."

"Well, would you care to show me, Dweebus?"

"Whaddaya think I'm doing?" He popped in two quarters, then he gripped the joystick in his left hand - while I still had _MY _hand on it.

_Okay, THIS...God, I don't even know what this is._

"Uh...Sean? What are you-"

"Just trust me and relax," he said, his breath raising goosebumps on my neck. "I know what I'm doing."

_Yeah, I sure hope you do._

I felt Sean place his free hand on my shoulder gently, then I watched as he moved the joystick and positioned the claw right above the minion.

"Aaannnddd...drop it."

I hit the drop button on the joystick, and you know what? The claw picked the minion up perfectly.

_Okay, WOW. _

As I maneuvered around Sean to grab my new toy from the bottom, I looked over my shoulder at him, and smirked. "Neat trick," I chuckled.

"Thanks." He tossed his hair to one side, and shot me a smile that would've made any girl within a ten-foot radius melt. "I try."

At that moment, a little girl (also with bright blond hair) around Bean's age toddled up to Sean. "Sean, momma says it's time to go," she told him in a tiny voice.

"Alright Kimmy, gimme one sec." He walked to the nearest table, grabbed a napkin, asked a passing waiter for a pen, scribbled something on it, then handed it to me.

I looked down at the napkin, and after glancing at the phone number at the top of it, I read what Sean had scrawled below it.

_**Here's my cell phone number. Call me sometime - maybe we can hang. - Sean Redgrave **_

I looked up at him, and gave him a tight smile. "Maybe. Don't get your hopes up too high, Redgrave."

"Whatever you say, Connelly," he laughed. He then scooped up the little girl named Kimmy, and walked off towards the front doors.

When he was gone, I quickly stuffed the napkin in my back pocket, and went back to our table with the minion plushie gripped tightly in my hand.

_Oh my god, I can't BELIEVE that just actually happened. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god..._

All of a sudden, Donna appeared beside me with this sorta' sly look on her face. "That blonde guy was pretty cute, Stella."

"Yep, sure was." With a scowl, I pulled the napkin out of my pocket, and re-read the little note he'd written under his phone number.

_Ugh, friggin' Sean Redgrave handing me his friggin' cell number on a friggin' -_

Before I could finish the thought, somebody snatched the napkin out of my hands. Bewildered, I looked up, and saw Charlie skimming over the note. "What's this?"

"Nothing you need to know-"

"Who's Sean Redgrave?"

Now thoroughly fed up, I lunged for the napkin. "No one, Charlie! Now gimme the stupid napkin!"

"No one, Stella? He's _someone _if he's giving you his _cell phone number_."

I snarled. "Friggin' A, Charlie, gimme the napkin!"

Wisely, Charlie surrendered the napkin to me. "Okay, jeez, sorry for taking your napkin! You don't need to bite my head off, Stella!"

"Whatever." I shoved the napkin back in my pocket, then sat back down next to Greg, who was staring suspiciously at the glass of water that had been placed behind his burger and fries.

_Why can't the kid just drink the damn - _

"REMATCH, I DARE YA!" some dude belted over an intercom.

I whipped my head from side to side, trying to figure out where the voice had come from. "What the freak _was _that?"

Greg only shrugged, like some guy yelling at somebody for a rematch was the most normal thing in the world. "Couldn't tell you." He then went back to staring at the glass of water.

I huffed in exasperation. "Good friggin' grief Greg, it's not gonna kill you."

"I dunno," he said. "You think it's safe?"

_Is he serious? _

Without hesitating, I grabbed the water, and took a small sip. Then, I slammed it back down in front of him.

"Look, did I keel over and die?" I didn't wait for him to answer before I snapped, "Just drink it already, would you!"

I sighed heavily, and dove into the cheeseburger sitting in front of me. For a while, I just noshed on my food and listened to what everyone else was talking about; at the time, the adults' topic of conversation was the spreading of my granddad's ashes tomorrow morning.

"Gonna be an emotional day tomorrow, spreading the Buzzer's ashes," Eric said solemnly.

_Emotional, indeed._ My heart grew heavy as my thoughts drifted to my grandfather. _Granddad, I miss you..._

"The coach requested that we spread his ashes on MacIntyre Island," Rob noted. "I have a beautiful ceremony planned out."

Sally looked over at Lenny then. "You still gonna be able to do that? What time do you leave?"

_Leaving? OH YEAH...that's right, Lenny's family leaves for Milan tomorrow morning._

Eric looked at Lenny weirdly. "What are you talking about?"

"I forgot to tell you boys - we gotta take off in the morning."

A cry of protest rose from the other adults at the table.

"Is he joking?"

"No, I'm not," Lenny said sadly. "Believe me, I wanna stay here, we all do. But we've gotta go to Milan."

Marcus gawked at Lenny incredulously. "Milan? Italy?"

I groaned. _No, Marcus. Milan, Japan._

"Roxanne's got her fall line coming out!" Lenny protested.

"Fashion Week," she added with smile.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Greg go all mooney-eyed at the mention of Fashion Week. "Three nights at the Four Seasons, baby - eggs benedict by the pool, playstation three in every room, _and _they show _boobies _on Italian TV.

I scoffed. "Ex-_cuse _me?"

"What?" he asked innocently. "They seriously show boobs on TV over there."

"Yep, I'll bet they do, and I'll bet they show 'em in Italy just for you, Greg Feder, because you probably can't get any over here," I shot back with an impish grin on my face.

_And, OWNED._

"Hey, I could get some if I wanted. Girls over there fall all over me - it's what they do."

I snorted, and shoved some fries into my mouth. _Freakin' chauvinist. _

"Lenny, it's not gonna be the same without you," Rob whined.

Lenny blinked, and shrugged somewhat-passively. "Hey, Roxanne was cool enough to let us come tonight. This is a big deal."

"Can't Roxanne go without you and you could meet her there?" somebody piped up.

"No, we are a team, me and my lady, and we do _everything _together. Last year, we had to skip Becky's school play for Milan."

_Dude, wrong choice of words._

Roxanne looked ready to hit Lenny, she was ticked at him. With a growl, she stood up, threw her napkin down, and stormed off towards the bathrooms.

As I watched Lenny go after her and Bean ask Sally about getting wasted, Charlie leaned towards me. "Guys are so dumb sometimes," she whispered into my ear.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

She smiled then. "But they get better over time, don't they?"

_Yeah, right. _

"Pfft, I wish."

* * *

><p>AN: And done with chapter 5! I'm in the middle of chapter 6! Yay! You like how i added Sean? He'll be back though! Greg needs to be jealous too. Anyway Reviews are love:)<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

A/N:Sorry it took so long I have been really busy. Once again I can't take all the credit, I have a beta reader. Thank You phoenixfire53! Your amazing! Now onto the story :)

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is not mine

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

When we all left Woodman's and went back to the house, it had to be close to one in the morning.

Naturally, everyone was exhausted, but honestly, if there had been a contest to see who was the most tired,

I probably would've won, and pretty damn easily at that; the moment I sat down in the McKenzies' Volvo, I was toe-up in a matter of seconds. Hell, if I remember correctly (if at all),

I'm fairly certain that I'd been so deep in sleep that either Kurt or Marcus had to haul me outta the car and into the kids room.

Yeah, I'm a REEEAAALLLY heavy sleeper, if you haven't already gathered. But, moving on…

Anyway, I conked out hard, but I conked out hard for a grand total of four hours. _FOUR FREAKIN' HOURS. _

And it was all thanks to Eric Lamansoff's damn labradoodle that decided to play the role of bugle boy at five in the friggin' morning.

As soon as Curly started yapping like his life depended on it, my eyes flew open, and that was pretty much the end of my sleeping.

I blinked drowsily, and scowled. "Ugh, son-of-a-bitch… What the hell…" Sluggishly, I turned over on my stomach, and fumbled for the alarm clock on the bedside table beside me, squinting and hissing at the bright light that the green LED numbers were generating – 5:06 AM, the clock read.

"Shit fire son-of-a… _NOOOO, Curly, you're not doing this to me at five in the morning_!" I moaned in exhaustion. "You _evil, evil, evil _labradoodle…Why can't you let me get some damn shut-eye?"

Nonetheless, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, and pushed off.

Then, I tiptoed over and around the boys scattered on the floor, and trudged out into the main part of the house, irritably debating whether or not I wanted to kill Curly for disturbing my sleep.

I headed into the kitchen and made my way towards the fridge, singing what sounded like military cadence under my breath with pissed-off undertones. "Up in the morning, outta my rack," I grumbled as I yanked open the fridge door, and grabbed a carton of orange juice.

"Greeted at dawn with Curly's attack... That stupid dog screwed up my rest... He soon will know that wasn't best..." I poured myself a big glass of OJ, trying my damnedest to block out Curly's wheezy, choky barking.

My damnedest wasn't my best though - after about thirty seconds of gritting my teeth and ignoring him, I couldn't take Curly's barking anymore.

With a growl, I marched over to the dog, who was sitting in front of the door and barking at nothing in particular, and snapped my fingers sharply. "Curly!" I snapped in a voice low enough to not wake up the others, but just loud enough to get the dog's attention. "No barking! No barking!"

Surprisingly, Curly actually stopped barking. He cocked his head up to look at me briefly before returning to looking out the front door. He then jumped to his feet, and nudged at the door with his nose.

I frowned. _Does he wanna go outside or something?_

With a sigh, I opened the door; as soon as I did, Curly high-tailed outta the house and ran to the nearest bush. I snorted. _Well, that explains the barking, _I thought.

Figuring it would be a good idea to keep an eye on Curly, I slipped outside, and pulled up a chair on the porch.

I plunked down crosslegged in it, and sipped at my orange juice slowly, enjoying the view of the lake and the spiky black evergreens surrounding it. Briefly, I looked up at the sky; it was a medium-dark purple-ish blue color, and if I looked hard enough, I could see a star here and there.

I blinked, and yawned. _Jeez... First time in a while that I've been up before the sun's risen. _

A minute after Curly had ran off to take care of his business, I heard his footsteps on the porch flooring as he trotted over to me. I couldn't help but smile as he sprawled out next to me and rested his head against my leg.

"As much as I hate you barking at five in the morning," I said as I reached down and rubbed the top of his head, "you're a good dog. You're very lovable." It then occurred to me what I was doing, and I slapped my palm to my forehead. "Ugh... I'm talking to a dog. Good God, I'm losing my mind..."

"Yeah, just a bit," somebody from behind me said all of a sudden.

Startled, I whipped my head over my shoulder so fast I practically gave myself whiplash.

When I did, I saw Greg leaning against the porch railing, a tired smirk gracing his face.

I let out an exasperated breath. "Friggin' A Greg, are you trying to gimme a heart attack?"

He shook his head. "Not a heart attack, just a second opinion." He shrugged when he saw me cock an eyebrow. "Hey, you were the one going on about how you were losing your mind talking to a dog."

"Yeah, no shit." I sighed through my nose. "Whatever. What are you doing up?"

Greg didn't say anything as he walked over and pulled up a chair beside me.

When he did, I crossed my arms in front of my chest, and gave him a fake frown. "And just _who _invited _you _to sit next to me? I was quite fine without your company."

"Well, excuse me for wanting to see the sunrise."

I gently hit his shoulder with the back of my hand. "Hey - you _do _know that I'm joking, right?" I laughed quietly. "Jeez Greg, lighten up a bit."

He hummed in acknowledgement, and kept his eyes on the horizon.

Meanwhile, I decided to steal a glance; out of the corner of my right eye, I could see that he was wearing XBOX360 pajama bottoms, a white t-shirt, and an unzipped gray Abercrombie hoodie with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows.

To be honest, he looked pretty hot.

He smirked. "Like what you see, Stella?"

_Damn it, he noticed._

"Hilarious, Greg," I grumbled, my face now a flushed shade of crimson.

He nudged me with his shoulder, which caused a round of shivers to zip down my spine.

_Gah, stupid shivers! _

"I _am _a funny guy, you know," he said, the smile obvious in his voice.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, on what planet?"

"C'mon, admit it - I'm funny."

"No way."

"_Yes _way."

Thankfully, the argument died there, and we were silent as we watched the sun slowly inch up over the horizon.

Well, until Greg turned to me and asked if I was ticklish.

I frowned, and nodded suspiciously. "Yeah... Why do you wanna know?"

An evil smile bloomed on his face, and it suddenly occurred to me that I'd just made a stupid mistake - one so stupid I would've never thought like _I _could make it. When the thought hit me,

I was out of my seat and running from the porch as fast as I could. "Ohhh no! You are _SO _not tickling me, Feder!"

It only took Greg a few seconds to catch up to me; when he did, he grinned at me impishly. "Am, too," he snickered. He then proceeded to tackle me to the ground, and started tickling me as I shrieked and howled with laughter.

"ACK! GREG! S...STOP IT!"

"Not until you say 'Greg Feder's the funniest and cutest guy I know'!"

"GREG! I'M... GONNA... PEE MYSELF!" I squealed. "STOP IT!"

"Hey, just waiting on you, sweetness!"

_You EVIL child!_

"FINE! GREG FEDER'S THE FUNNIEST AND CUTEST GUY I KNOW!"

And, just like that, Greg stopped tickling me. He stopped - but he didn't get off me. No - he just stared down at me with this curious look on his face. He then bent over a bit, and rested his hands on my shoulders, effectively pinning me underneath him.

Another round of shivers zipped up and down my spine. _What's he doing? _

He blinked, and slowly started leaning towards my face. For a moment, my heart stopped beating as his face drew closer to mine.

_Oh my god, he's gonna kiss me..._

"WHOA! TMI!" somebody from the porch yelled - somebody that sounded a lot like Keithie.

_Oh great, he saw._

Almost instantly, Greg rolled off me, and I sprang to my feet as my face turned a lovely shade of cherry tomato red. I bit my lip, and mumbled "Sorry" to Greg, and he mumbled "Yeah, my bad" to me before he all but sprinted for the front door.

As I watched him run through the front door and past his little brother

I couldn't help but think about what had almost happened a moment ago; Greg Feder had literally been seconds away from kissing me, _on the mouth_ - there was no mistaking it.

Hell, if it hadn't been for Keithie's little "interruption", he probably would've.

_He almost kissed me... _

And I'd wanted him to. At that moment, I would've done damn-near anything to have Greg Feder kiss me.

_Eff, now you're REALLY losing your mind, Stella._

As I walked back to the house with my head in my hand, I couldn't help but think that that boy was gonna be the death of me.

* * *

><p><strong> Greg's P.O.V.<strong>

Half of Greg was in complete shock as he ran into the kitchen, and the other half of him was absolutely disgusted with him.

_Fuck! Fuck! Fuckity-fuck! _his conscience screeched at him. _You fucking screwed up BIG TIME!_

"What are you _doing, _Greg? You almost kissed her... AGAIN!" he hissed to himself as he paced between the fridge and the island. "Are you looking to get your ass whooped? Gah, stupid hormones!"

To make matters worse, Keith waltzed into the kitchen with a surprised look on his face.

"Dude..." he said quietly. "Did you just seriously almost-"

"Keithie, shut up before I brain you with something hard."

The younger Feder clicked his tongue against the inside of his cheek. "I'll take that as a yes, then."

Greg sighed heavily through his nose, and shook his head. "Whatever - it's not that big a deal."

_Pfft. Yeah, right - not that big a deal my ass. It's a HUGE deal. _

He slowly looked over at Keith, and shot him a warning glare. "Say _anything _about what you saw to _anyone, _and I'll murder you in your sleep."

Thankfully, Keith only nodded, and left Greg alone to mull over what had happened a few minutes ago. Even better though - he only had a few seconds to think about the _incident _before Lenny and Becky marched into the main area with the injured mourning dove in a shoebox.

"Birdie coming through!" Lenny yelled to all those who were awake in the house.

Now that the attention had been taken off him, Greg ducked out of the kitchen, and headed back to the kids room to go change out of his pajamas. As he walked in, he was greeted with the sight of Stella pacing back and forth between the bed and the bay window, muttering things under her breath.

"Stella?"

Her head snapped up, sending her mop of wavy dark hair towards her back in a graceful arc. It took all of Greg's self-control not to just die right there after witnessing_ that. _

"What?"

"Uh... Are you okay?"

She swallowed in discomfort. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you're pacing enough to wear a path in the floor, and your face is red," Greg informed her cautiously, not really sure of how she would take his observations. He then - for the _oddest _reason - reached out, and placed his hand flat on her forehead.

It was probably the second-dumbest move he'd made that morning.

Stella's eyes went wide for a moment before she slapped his hand down. "Stop!" she hissed. "Stop being so nice!"

Startled by her Jekyll-and-Hyde behavior, Greg held his hands up and slowly backed away from Stella. "Okay, maybe the forehead thing was uncalled for, but seriously, I'm just trying to help. And, I kinda' thought you _wanted _me to be nice..."

"Well, can you stop? God Greg, _that's _why I'm falling..." Stella never finished her thought - she just huffed in aggravation, threw her hands up, and stormed out of the kids room before Greg could put in his thoughts on the matter.

Sighing, Greg sat on the edge of the window seat, and held his head in his hands.

_Dear god, that girl's gonna KILL me._

* * *

><p><strong> Stella's P.O.V.<strong>

I hate Greg.

I hate his perfect body, his perfect smile, his green eyes, his messy hair, his dimples...

I HATE HIM. I JUST FREAKIN' HATE HIM.

As I wallowed in my thoughts, I accidentally knocked shoulders with Charlie as she was coming out of the bathroom. She blinked for a moment, then cocked her head to one side as a concerned look welled up on her face.

"What's wrong with you?" she yawned.

I shook my head. "Greg," I replied simply.

"Uh-oh. What did he do?"

"_Everything._"

"Uh... Like _what_, Stella? C'mon, gimme details."

"He's too perfect, Charlie!" I exclaimed in exasperation. "He's just too freaking _perfect_!"

For a moment, Charlie stared at me with this look of wonder on her face, like what I'd just told her sounded like the secrets of the universe. After a second of contemplating, a grin slowly stretched across her face. "You're falling for him," she concluded.

I'm not gonna lie; what she said was totally true.

She giggled. "Ha, I _knew _it." She did what looked like a victory twirl before she continued. "You should tell him."

_Yeah, no freakin' way. _

"I'm sorry, but you're crazy if you think I'm gonna admit _that _to Greg."

Charlie shrugged. "Yeah, I'm crazy - not that I care, though." She paused briefly. "Whatever. I seriously think you should tell him. I know he likes you back, so he'll probably say the same thing."

"Did he tell you or something?"

"No. I just know he does."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, Charlie," I sighed before I made my way to the living room.

_Could my morning get any worse?_

* * *

><p><strong> Charlie's P.O.V.<strong>

As she watched Stella walk away from her, Charlie couldn't help but sigh. "She should tell him," she whispered to herself.

She quietly made her way back to the kids room to grab a sweater; as she rounded a corner, she nearly bumped into Greg. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I'm still kinda'..." Her voice trailed off when she looked at Greg and the outfit he was wearing - knee-high socks over navy-blue capris, white skate shoes, a white button-down with poofy flower appliqués, and to top it off, a pinstripe fedora.

Charlie couldn't help but laugh. "If you're trying to impress Stella, I'd recommend wearing normal clothes, 'cause there's no way that she's gonna like you when you're wearing _that_."

He looked down at the floor as his face flushed red.

_Ha, he SO likes her. Stella, you should see him right now..._

After a second, Greg gathered up his senses, and shook his head. "I'm not trying to _impress _her, Charlotte," he said hotly. "She snapped at me for being nice, so at this point, I'm not gonna bother trying to impress her. Besides," he added haughtily, "this is my garb for Milan."

Charlie snorted. "Yep, I'm sure it is." She quickly sent Greg a knowing smile. "You know, if it means anything to you, Stella didn't do that to be bitchy. She probably snapped at you because she's confused."

"Confused? What's that suppos-"

"Don't bother asking me to explain - you'd be bored to death by the time I finished."

"Oh... Chick thing?"

Charlie nodded. "Oh yeah."

Greg shook his head slightly. "It's always a chick thing," he said to himself. "Girls are so weird..."

Bored with the small talk now, Charlie cut to the chase and voiced the question that had been on her mind for a while now. "Do you like Stella?" she asked Greg quietly, wanting to hear his answer, even though she knew what it was already.

He stared down at his feet, and scuffed at the floor with the toe of his shoe. He swallowed. "Promise you won't tell her?"

Charlie blinked slowly. "Even if it kills me."

Greg sighed then. "Yeah... I do. I mean, she's the _only _girl I know that's ever...I dunno, put me in my place, I guess... That, and she doesn't go around spouting that she has a crush on me like she's some ditz... It's nice that she puts up a fight."

Charlie was silent as she listened to Greg rant about why he liked Stella; he seemed like he really had it bad for Stella, almost to the point where it was just a bit annoying. But, then again, Charlie had been expecting that.

As she continued listening, she made up her mind to not to tell Stella. As much as she wanted to, she felt like she couldn't do that to Greg. So, she decided to keep her promise. She would, however, ask him a question...

At last, Greg wrapped up his thought. Charlie nodded, and took a quick breath. _If I'm not gonna tell her, then at least he should, _she thought.

"You wanna tell her?"

Greg stared at her with a look that bordered on horrified. "NO!" he squeaked. "Are you nuts?"

_Jeez, there's a lot of that going around today..._

"_No_, I'm not, thank you," Charlie said, her voice tinged with irritation. "I'm serious, Greg - you should tell her... Before _someone else _does."

A scowl welled up on Charlie's face as Stella's encounter with Sean Redgrave crossed her mind. If it hadn't been for him, things would be going as planned; there wouldn't be any doubt or screw-ups_._

_Greg, you'd better not say or do anything stupid. _

Immediately following the thought, Charlie gave an inaudible snort. _As if. Knowing Greg and my crappy luck, he probably will. _

"Okay... I'm gonna go for a walk," Greg said awkwardly before he started walking to the front door. "Don't tell Stella what I told you."

Charlie just watched Greg go through the door. As soon as she was gone, she growled and kicked the air in aggravation.

_Freakin' A, I'm dealing with the two most stubborn people on the planet._

* * *

><p><strong> Stella's P.O.V.<strong>

After lounging around in the living room for ten minutes or so, my empty stomach finally got the better of me. Hungry, I walked into the kitchen, which had been commandeered by Rob and Gloria so they could chef up breakfast for everybody.

I pulled up a stool at the island, and rested my head in my hands. "Soo... What's on the menu this morning, Robbie dearest?"

Rob gave what looked like pancake batter another whisk before answering me. "Well, we've got some pancakes and bananas all ready to go. You're more than welcome to have some, Stella."

"Sweet." I did a quick scan for the plate of pancakes and basket of fruit, but I frowned when I didn't see them. "Uh... Rob? Where's the food?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." He reached out and tapped a stack of plastic and metal trays sitting in front of me with his fingers. "Food's in the dehydrator."

_Dehydrator? What the hell?_

I lifted up one of the trays, and revealed something that looked like bacon - well, supersized, yellow-ish bacon.

_Looks like I found the bananas..._

I plucked a piece from the tray, took a small bite, and chewed slowly. In a word: _disgusting_.

I gagged, grabbed a napkin, and spit it out. "Jeezy freakin' Creezy Rob, you murdered a banana. What the heck did you do to the stupid thing?"

"Dehydrated it, just like the others," he explained. "It's much better for you than a regular banana."

_Ah, what a load of bull. _

"It tastes like crap."

"It's vegan food, Stella - the stuff's nothing _but _crap," Keithie called out to me from the living room.

I shook my head. "Dude, I'm sorry, but I refuse to eat this stuff. I'm a carnivore. I don't _do _vegan."

"Well," Rob scoffed, "I'm sorry to tell you that there's no meat allowed in the kitchen - at least not when I'm cooking."

_This is SO not my day. _

I groaned. "You are such a _hippie_, Rob."

"I'm not a hippie!"

Gloria sidled up to him then and patted him lovingly on the shoulder. "I have to agree with Stella, baby - you _are _a bit of a hippie." She smiled warmly at me. "Honey, if you're looking for some meat to nosh on, I gave Lenny a big pack of bacon."

I instantly perked up at Gloria's mention of bacon. "Where's the love?" I asked her excitedly.

"Outside on the porch."

I pumped my arm, and gave Gloria a quick hug. "You're my new favorite person," I grinned.

Gloria laughed. "Glad to hear, hon."

I doled out another thank-you, than jogged out to the porch to hunt down Lenny and the pack of meaty goodness.

Twenty seconds later, I found him standing over a glass-top table with the pack of bacon in his hand, smiling triumphantly as the smell of bacon wafted through the air and as it jumped and cooked on...

_The bug zapper?_

I smiled weirdly as I walked over to Lenny and the table. "Interesting way to chef up bacon," I commented.

He looked up, and smiled when he saw me. "Mornin', Stella. Yeah, Robbie got his panties in a bunch and wouldn't let me cook it in the kitchen."

"Yeah, I figured," I snorted. "The man is such a dweeb."

"I hear ya."

Just then, I noticed Greg mope around the side to the front lawn, decked out in this ridiculously flamboyant outfit. I cocked an eyebrow, and laughed in disbelief.

"We feeling adventurous, Greg, or did we get dressed in a closet?"

Lenny had been in the process of cooking some bacon when I spoke. He looked up, and groaned at the sight of his son. "Greggie - what are you doing dressing up like _that_? W-What, you hanging out with Jiminy Cricket?"

"We were supposed to be going to Milan, remember?" Greg reminded him in a 'duh' voice.

"That's what I packed for."

"Pfft. Just cut those into shorts. We'll play some hoop later."

"Pass, dude."

"You sure you don't want revenge for the last time I whooped you?"

Greg rolled his eyes boredly. "That was four years ago, homie. All I wanna do is fly to Milan and have some fresh-made gelatto." He then continued on his way, muttering and whining about going to Milan and getting away from the lake house.

I shook my head. _What a jerk, _I thought. _A hot jerk, but a jerk nonetheless._

Around that time, Eric had appeared beside Lenny. He shook his head.

Lenny sighed. "What would've happened if you'd said that to your dad?" he asked Eric absent-mindedly.

"That would've been a backhand to the head, and possible bleeding from the ear."

Lenny threw another batch of bacon on the bug zapper. "My dad would've thrown me down the stairs for using the word _gelatto_," he snorted.

"Me, I would've lost phone and TV priviledges for a week," I threw in.

Lenny smirked. "Ha, sounds like your mom's raising you well." His smirk grew wider then. "Stella, there's some bacon ready, if you're hungry."

My eyes lit up. "Woot! Bacon!" I cheered before snatching a few pieces and shoving one in my mouth. I sighed blissfully. "Ah... Bacon is love," I said happily.

Kurt joined the party then. "Hey, that the new Foreman?" he asked jokingly as he picked up a piece of bacon.

"You bet," I grinned, mouth full of food.

"Heh, I figured as much."

I was on the verge of popping another piece of bacon in my mouth, when Eric pulled something out of his mouth - a moth.

_Ew! Don't tell me I've been eating freakin' moths!_

Eric frowned at Lenny. "C'mon man, not cool. What are you doing to me?" he groused as he flicked the moth away.

Lenny shrugged. "What, you don't want your breath to smell like your grandma's closet?"

Discreetly, I spat out my mouthful of bacon into a bush, my appetite having gone from 100 to zero in two-point two seconds. I then excused myself, and trudged over to where Charlie was sitting, which was in front of the lake, silently watching Keithie sorta' kabitzing around with Donna.

"Soo... What's on today's agenda?" I asked her casually as I planted myself beside her in the grass.

Charlie shrugged. "Dunno," she said with a soft sigh. "I guess we could badger the moms for a girls day or something."

_Huh, that doesn't sound so bad..._

I smiled. "Sounds like fun." I tapped my chin in thought briefly. "Hmm, what would we do?"

Again, Charlie shrugged, and continued watching Donna and Keith. I noticed, and smirked.

"Aw, poor Charlie. Everybody 'cept you and Andy's paired off."

"I don't really care," she smiled. "I'm just Cupid."

Under my breath, I said, "Yeah, a crappy one."

For that, she shoved me. "Like you could do any better. Jeez..." Charlie was silent for a moment before she spoke again. "I still think you should tell Greg."

I sighed. "Didn't we cover this already? I'm _not _telling him."

"Yeah, you are," Charlie insisted in an annoying sing-song voice.

"No, I'm not."

"_Yeah_."

"_No!_"

"I'll bet you anything that you-"

"Ladies?" Sally all of a sudden called out to us, effectively cutting off mine and Charlie's bickering before things could get ugly.

The both of us turned around, and saw Sally standing nearby, her hands on her hips, a smile on her face, and Deanne, Roxanne and Gloria flanking her sides. We quickly got on our feet, and asked what was up.

"Well," Sally began, "we're gonna head into to town and see what's what, maybe grab something to eat, do a little shopping... You know, just have a girls day out. Would you like to come?"

I immediately nodded yes; the way I saw it, it was the perfect opportunity to kinda' detox from being around Greg and all his BS. Charlie quickly jumped on board with the idea after I agreed, stating that she had nothing better to do.

Almost all the chicks had banded together now; the only one missing from our little group was Donna.

So, wanting to be nice and friendly, I yelled out to Donna and asked if she wanted to join us. When I did ask, Donna paused, and looked down at Keithie, trying to decide what to do.

From what I could see, he seemed to be telling her to go - in the nice, cute way. For some reason, seeing a dork like Keithie Feder act that way around Donna made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

_Ugh, again with the hormones..._

Donna happily joined us, and we all headed for Lenny's Yukon, as it was the only car big enough to fit the seven of us comfortably. As we squeezed in, sat down and backed out of the driveway, my mouth twitched up in a small smile.

_Maybe this day won't be SO bad._

* * *

><p><em> <strong> ...A few hours later... <strong>_

After getting manis and pedis, grabbing some (palatable) breakfast at a local Honey Dew Donuts, and hauling around several bags of clothes, we all headed back to the lake house. After spending some time away from Greg, I was in a great mood, and I was really convinced that today was gonna be a great day.

Too bad that all drastically changed when we pulled into the driveway.

As soon as me, Charlie and Donna got out of the car, we were greeted with the sight of Greg and Andre tailing two tall, super-pretty girls - one had blonde hair and looked like a Barbie doll, and the other had black hair and looked Asian - like they were friggin' English Royalty.

_Who the hell are they?_

A dark look appeared on Charlie's face as she watched Greg, her brother and the two girls jog towards us.

She shook her head. "My luck must really suck if _this _is happening," she groaned.

I couldn't help but nod. Charlie suddenly wasn't the only one thinking that her luck just totally bombed.

The boys and girls now skidded to a stop in front of us, breathlessly explaining that they wanted us to meet a couple people.

With grins on both their faces, Andre introduced the Asian to us as Amber, and Greg introduced the Barbie lookalike as Jasmine - _Rob's _daughters.

_YOU'RE KIDDING ME. How do you get supermodels from a guy like Rob? _

The boys hadn't finished talking, though. Greg quickly added that Amber and Jasmine were staying at the lake house for the rest of the weekend with us, and - as if he was subconsciously trying to piss me off - he stared at Jasmine with this dreamy glint in his eyes.

I honestly could've killed somebody, then. I don't know what the hell happened, but at that moment, something in me snapped; watching Greg practically drool over this insanely-gorgeous blonde chick made me so unbelievably pissed off that I couldn't even think straight.

I was now so angry that I had no bones about reaching out and punching somebody in the face - particularly Jasmine or Amber.

I all of a sudden hated them, REALLY hated them. I couldn't give two shits if I'd only known them for a few seconds - I flat-out couldn't STAND them.

Apparently, my face must've mirrored my thoughts, because Andre noticed and called me out on it. "Stella? What's wrong?"

I clenched my hands so tightly into fists that my knuckles turned white. "Yeah Andre, I'm just _peachy_," I said stiffly before stomping off towards the house, and to the kids room. When I got there, I threw the bags of clothes on the bed, and started to roughly take them out.

Charlie came in just as I whipped a bag at the door. "Stella, are you..." - she dodged another bag I threw her way - "okay?"

"Do I look even _remotely _okay, Charlie?" I snapped angrily before going back to throwing the clothes around. "Stupid Amber, stupid Jasmine... _Stupid Greg..._"

"Ohh, I get it... You're jealous."

"Gee, I wonder why," I said sarcastically. "Goddammit, I go to get away and detox from Greg for a few hours, and when I come back, I have to deal with _this _bull! Is my karma trying to make me miserable or something lame like that?"

Charlie walked around to stand in front of me. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and shrugged. "I dunno about _that_. Maybe your karma's trying to make you tell Greg that you like him." She snorted. "It sure would make life a whole lot easier."

_Or... Maybe my karma's telling me to get back at him..._

My thoughts suddenly drifted to Sean and last night's little fiasco, as well as the napkin with his phone number on it.

And, just then, I had an idea.

I quickly found my cell phone in my suitcase, then I fished out the napkin from my pants pocket. With a smirk on my face, I punched in the number, and patiently waited for Sean to pick up.

Not surprisingly, it picked up on the first ring. "Hello?" he said.

My smirk grew bigger. "Captain Obvious, what's up?"

He chuckled. "Sergeant Smartass. Figured you'd call sooner or later."

"Yep... So, I'm curious - you doing anything right now?"

"Nope. Why?"

"Well," I started, "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out at my place. I'm staying over at the Ernshaw lake house. You up for it?"

"Sure!" he exclaimed, a bit too quickly. "I know where you are - I bike by the place all the time. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Alright, awesome," I grinned. "See ya soon."

After we hung up, I turned to Charlie with a happy look on my face. "Ah," I sighed blissfully. "Revenge really is sweet."

Then, I walked off, and left Charlie to stand in the bedroom with a horrified look on her face.

* * *

><p><strong> Charlie's P.O.V.<strong>

Charlie was honestly gonna KILL Greg, and then she just might do the same to Stella.

While his boneheadedness and those two girls had screwed up her plan pretty badly, Stella REALLY botched it with her decision to get back at him with Sean.

Really, all Charlie could do at this point was watch as her once bullet-proof, perfect plan to get Greg and Stella together by the end of the weekend fell apart before her very eyes.

_This can't be happening! It just can't be! _

She needed to do something, and she needed to do it FAST, before things got out of control. If there was one fight Charlotte McKenzie wasn't going to lose, it was this one. She was gonna do absolutely _everything _to make sure that she won this one, or she would go down kicking and screaming.

_Greg, Stella - YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING._

* * *

><p>AN:So? What do you think? Lots of POV changes. I honestly loved writing this chapter. Ok one thing. I need an idea of what should go on between Sean and Stella. I have a pretty basic one, but your ideas would help, So have an idea? PM me! Reveiws are love:)


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Hey guys I'm so sorry this took so long I started school so I wasn't able to get on. Sorry hope you forgive me. Also I had someone say they're of fan of me..I'm just a normal girl, but ****I'm flattered. Anyway Chapter 7 everyone!**

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: Stella, Sean and anyone or thing not in the original movie is mine.<strong>

** Chapter 7**

* * *

><p><strong> Greg's P.O.V.<strong>

Greg had been in the process of grabbing a water bottle for Jasmine when he heard somebody knock at the door.

Feeling his good manners kick in, he set the water down on the counter, and ran to answer the door. When he did, he came face to face with a tall blond boy around his age.

"Oh, hey," the boy said in a friendly voice. "I'm Sean Redgrave. Is Stella here?"

The second 'Sean' mentioned Stella, a weird, uncomfortable feeling developed in the pit of Greg's stomach. How the hell did this kid know Stella, and what the hell did he want with her?

"Yeah," Greg replied, making sure to keep things short and sweet. "What do you-"

"Oh, hey Sean!"

The sound of Stella's voice caused Greg's head to whip around, and when his eyes fell on her, his jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

Stella looked HOT; she was wearing a blue Guns n' Roses t-shirt, jean shorts, navy-blue flip-flops, and - if Greg looked hard enough - makeup. Not too much, but enough to make her look like a million bucks. And frankly, it was enough to render Greg speechless for the moment.

_Holy SHIT..._

The grin on Sean's face could've stretched from the lake house all the way to friggin' Russia, it was so big. "Hey! Wow... You look good, Connelly."

"Not too shabby yourself, Redgrave. And glad you could come over," Stella smiled, seemingly oblivious to Sean's eyes roving over her figure.

Greg had to do a double take as soon as he heard that. _SHE invited this dumbass over?_

All of a sudden, it was like his stomach was in knots. Call him ridiculous, but he couldn't even fathom that a girl like Stella Connelly would up and decide to do something like this - and now, his confusion only served to piss him off.

With an inaudible growl, he grabbed Stella by the arm, and dragged her towards a nearby broom closet with an angry scowl on his face.

"Uh, any particular reason you decided to haul me off to a broom-"

Greg's hand covered her mouth, effectively cutting her sentence short. "What's he doing here?" he hissed.

"I... Invited him?" she replied slowly. "Why? What's got you bunged up, Feder?"

_Oh, I think you know DAMN WELL why I'm pissed off, Stella._

"Oh yeah? Who said you could?"

Stella wrenched her arm free from Greg's grasp, and she proceeded to give him a dirty look as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well excuse me - I obviously didn't know I had to ask permission to have a damn friend over," she shot back.

Greg almost laughed out loud. "Friend, Stella? Do we even know who this guy is?"

Stella rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I clearly do, you clearly don't. DUH. Can I go now? I've got a friend waiting-"

It took every single ounce of his self-control to keep Greg from lashing out and knocking some sense into Stella.

Why couldn't she understand that he didn't like this guy? Sean was giving him a weird vibe - admittedly, seventy-five percent of Greg's twitchiness was due to jealousy, but as for the remaining twenty-five... There was something about the way Sean had looked at Stella a moment ago, something that told him that maybe there was more than just friendship on Sean's mind. Whatever it was, Greg couldn't STAND it.

"Dammit Stella, I think he's looking to be more than a friend!" Greg snapped, at this point not giving a rat's ass if he was heard or not. "I don't know if you noticed, but he was looking at you like you were a hunk of fucking meat-"

"Will you STOP IT! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR BITCHING! YOU DON'T DICTATE WHO I GET TO BE FRIENDS WITH, OR WHO I GET TO DATE, FOR THAT MATTER! NOW SHUT UP, LET ME OUT, AND LET ME DO WHAT I WANT TO DO, GREG!" Stella shrieked at Greg.

Although he'd just been screeched at by his crush and practically had the crap scared out of him,

Greg stood his ground and stared at her furiously. "Stella - HUMOR ME. Just PLEASE humor me and don't hang out with Sean. I'm getting a really bad feeling about him-"

Greg hadn't even finished speaking before Stella cut him off. "You know what, Greg? Screw you. I'm hanging out with Sean, and I don't care if you like it or not."

Then, with that said, she threw open the door, stomped out of the broom closet, and marched outside with Sean's hand in hers.

* * *

><p><strong>Stella's P.O.V.<strong>

I hate Greg now - really and truly HATE him. God, even thinking about him makes me just want to go back inside and deck him as hard as I can.

_I hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I HATE HIM!_

As I was mentally flinging curses and obscenities at Greg, I felt Sean's hand squeeze mine. "Hey," he said softly. "You okay? You guys were yelling pretty loud a second ago."

I shrugged. "It's nothing. Greg was being an idiot. It's not a big deal."

"If you say so..." Sean was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "So, what do you wanna do?"

I shrugged again. "Dunno - I'm pretty sure we'll figure it out as we go along."

Good one, Stella.

I sighed; one fight with Greg and already my day's ruined.

_This is just freakin' DANDY._

* * *

><p><strong>Charlie's P.O.V.<strong>

"Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are dating... YAWN. As if I care," Charlie grumbled boredly before chucking an old issue of J-14 at the bed frame.

For the past half-hour, she had been making similar comments as she'd thumbed through the magazine she'd brought, trying to entertain herself and get away from everyone else for a bit.

Sadly, Charlie had read the magazine enough times to have it almost committed to memory, and she didn't have another magazine to occupy her brain for the moment.

So, she sat in the window seat, glaring out the window, wishing that she had something to do or someone to talk to.

Oddly enough, Charlie got her wish; just then, Greg stalked into the kids room, his face an angry shade of crimson and his hands clenched into tight fists.

_Oh, this oughta' be good._

Charlie quirked an eyebrow. "What happened to you?"

"Stella invited some rube over," he growled before he fell forward and faceplanted on the bed. "That's what happened."

"Oh... Well, care to elaborate?"

"Who do you think I'm talking about, Charlie? It's Sean Redgrave! He's here right now!"

_Oh, WONDERFUL._

"Alright, so he's here. Did you say or do anything?"

Charlie pictured Greg biting his lip at that moment. "Well... It was more like I yelled - and it was at

Stella. I got jealous, so I threw her in a broom closet and sorta' interrogated her." He paused briefly."She's not too happy with me right now."

Charlie snorted. "Can't imagine why," she said sarcastically. "You got jealous and just decided to grill Stella and piss her off... Nicely done, Greg."

"Hey, I like her! What else did you expect me to do! God, Charlie..."

"Uh-huh... You know, you didn't seem to like Stella that much when Jasmine was around."

"Okay, that's not fair! I'm a teenage boy - I'm doing what I'm programmed to do-"

"Yeah, well what you're doing just goes to show that you're an idiot, Greg."

"I'm an idiot? If you ask me, Stella's the idiot," Greg muttered irritably.

_Whoa, not cool!_

Scowling, Charlie grabbed her magazine, rolled it up, and smacked Greg on the back of his head with it.

"Alright, number one - you crossed the line calling Stella an idiot. Don't ever call my best friend an idiot. Number two - WAKE UP! Stella's a teenage girl, and she does the same things you do, you dink!"

That said, Charlie dropped the magazine, and (now having the sudden urge to go swimming) grabbed her swimsuit and a towel. She was sick of Greg, and she figured that swimming would be a good way to clear her head for the moment. So, she headed off to the bathroom to change.

* * *

><p><strong>Stella's P.O.V.<strong>

Almost fifteen minutes later, Sean and I were sitting in front of the lake, asking random questions about each other to see if we shared something in common.

And honestly, we had nothing.

Sean had both parents and a little sister, I had my mom and I was an only child; he was a cat person, I was a dog person; he could eat tofu and vegetarian food everyday and never get sick of it, I could eat straight-up red meat everyday and never get sick of it.

Really, it seemed like we had more differences than similarities.

Still, the more time I spent talking to Sean, the more he grew on me.

Pretty soon, I found myself really liking him - well, as a good friend, anyway. He was an easy-going and laid back guy, and - after a few minutes of telling him about myself - a good listener. Hell, call me corny, but Sean seemed like the type of friend that would always listen to you without interrupting, and would give you some advice and a hug if you ever needed it.

Overall, he seemed like a really good person.

_So, I'm wondering why Greg was acting all pissy at me when he showed up... Not like he cares about me, now that JASMINE's here..._

Before I could really put some thought into that statement, Charlie showed up in her swimsuit, and announced that she was gonna go swimming, and if we'd like to join her.

I looked at Sean, who grinned. "You wanna?" he said in chipper voice.

I shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

"Awesome!" Immediately following his exclamation, Sean chewed on his bottom lip. "You guys wouldn't happen to have a pair of shorts I could borrow, would you?"

"Oh yeah, course! Just ask my brother if you can borrow one of his suits - I'm pretty sure they'd fit you."

As Sean jogged off to find Andre, I headed to the house to go change. I ducked into the kids room, hauled out my suitcase from under the bed, and proceeded to rifle through it for a decent swimsuit.

After a moment of flinging clothes left and right, I finally found my swimsuit; it was a two-piece - a sports bikini.

_Well, fuck me for packing a bikini. I scowled as the thought crossed my mind. Dammit, I KNEW I shoulda' packed my one-piece..._

Now, don't get me wrong - I like bikinis. I'd just prefer to wear something that...well, covered me a bit better than a sports bikini.

_Ugh, just my luck..._

Reluctantly, I pulled on the suit, muttering to myself about how I felt more like I was wearing underwear than I was a swimsuit, even with the addition of some boardshorts I found buried at the bottom of my suitcase.

As soon as I had that all on, I stepped into the bathroom to give myself a once-over.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror closely, I decided to throw on a t-shirt, just for the sake of looking a bit more presentable.

So, I rifled through my suitcase again, trying to find a decent cover-up t-shirt; problem was, all the t-shirts I'd packed were either too cute to mess up or or just not meant to be worn with my suit.

I groaned. "The one time I need a cover-up, and I don't have one."

"Hey, I have a cute t-shirt you could throw on over that, if you're looking for a cover-up," somebody said from outside the bedroom.

I glanced over my shoulder to see who had spoken, and found myself looking at Jasmine - the Barbie doll clone. I bit down on my bottom lip before it could curl up into a sneer, and ignored her.

_Do me a favor, and GO AWAY_.

"Stella? I'd be more than happy to lend you one of my-"

"Yeah, I heard you the first time, Jasmine," I said icily. Under my breath, I added, "Now leave me alone."

There was brief silence, and I began to wonder if Jasmine had given up on me.

Subtly, I looked behind my back to check; she was still standing in the doorframe, but there was a wounded look on her face.

I sighed, suddenly feeling like an ass for snapping at Jasmine like I had a second ago. As much as I hate to say it, she didn't really deserve that - well, maybe just a little bit, but not the rest of it.

I straightened up, turned around, and looked at Jasmine with an apologetic expression on my face.

"Sorry about that," I mumbled softly. "I had no call to be a bitch to you."

"It's okay, trust me. Here, you know what - stay here for a sec. I'll be right back." Then, before I could protest, Jasmine had briskly walked away to go take care of god-knows-what.

Two seconds later, she waltzed into the kids room, holding a black t-shirt in her hands, smiling gently.

"Here you go," she said as she held it out to me. "It's a bit big, but it works as a really great cover-up. Plus it's cute, so you don't have to worry about looking like my stepmom."

I didn't take the shirt, choosing instead to look at it before I made up my mind.

I had to admit, it was a cute top; it was a black cotton t-shirt (like the ones you'd find at Old Navy), and _LOVE_ had been written across the front in elegant cursive handwriting, with a small heart painted on the right. It was a really simple top, but it was a ridiculously cute one, at that.

_I wanted it - badly, too. But, I wasn't sure if I wanted to borrow a shirt from Jasmine Hilliard._

"Um, thanks, but no thanks. I'm okay with what I have."

Jasmine laughed. "Relax, it's totally fine. I want you to borrow it."

_Ugh, FINE..._

I hesitantly took the shirt, keeping my eyes glued to the floor. Noticing this, Jasmine laughed again.

"It's okay Stella, I'm not gonna bite you."

I nodded, and yanked the shirt on. It fit me perfectly, and - like I'd wanted - it covered up the stuff I wanted covered. I smiled slightly. "Wow... Thanks."

"No prob. You know, that looks SO much better on you than it does on me... I want you to keep it."

My eyes widened a little. "Really?"

"Yeah, really," she grinned.

_Okay, maybe Jasmine's not as bad as I thought._

I giggled softly. "Thanks a ton, Jasmine." Then, I ran out of the room, and outside before she could see the retarded grin that had appeared on my face.

When I got to the shore, I noticed that Charlie, along with Sean, Andre, Donna and Keithie, were in the midst of a splash fight.

Not wanted to get involved, I quickly gathered my hair up into a ponytail, then walked over to the dock, where I sat down and dunked my feet in the water.

As it swirled around my feet and ankles, I watched everybody try to splash-attack each other with a smile on my face. It looked like a blast; maybe I'd join later, and we could have a boys vs. girls ultimate showdown.

_That would make for some interesting entertainment, huh..._

As the thought crossed my mind, I saw Sean swim over to me out of the corner of my eye. He stood up and leaned against the dock, soaking wet and smirking lazily. "Nice suit," he drawled.

"You coming in?"

"Yeah, I will in a bit."

"Alright, fair enough." Sean stood there and looked at me, and me vice versa.

I'll be honest, the kid was pretty hot; he had a great bod, clear blue eyes, and a cute smile - everything a girl could've wanted if she were looking for a boyfriend (or someone to stare at). But, as I looked at him, I found that his looks didn't make me all warm and fuzzy on the inside. And, call me a bitch, but I also found myself comparing Sean to Greg, and every single time that happened, Sean fell FLAT when put next to Greg. It made me feel kinda' bad, but that was the way things were working in my head.

"Stella, you wanna come in now?"

I shrugged. "In a second."

"Alright, a second's gone by. Can you come in, please?"

I sighed, and laughed. "Jeez Captain Obvious, don't be getting desperate on me," I chuckled.

"Why not, Sergeant Smartass?" He grabbed my hand, and started pulling me off the dock. "C'mon, it's great! You're not gonna freeze to death or something lame like that!"

"Okay okay okay, I'll come in! Jeezy Creezy Sean..." I quickly peeled off the cover-up, thereby exposing to the world the swimsuit, and jumped into the water. I swear to god, Sean's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw me in the bikini top.

_And this is exactly why I didn't want to wear the stupid bikini..._

"REALLY nice suit, Stella."

I splashed Sean in the face. "No funny moves, Sean. Don't even think about it."

"Alright, no funny moves with the suit" - he paused to grin impishly - "but how 'bout a funny move with the water?" He then blindsided me with a wave of water.

_Ooh, you are SO gonna die, Redgrave._

"You wanna play rough, Sean? I'll play rough," I snickered.

Then, without further ado, I started splashing him as hard as I could, and soon he was doing the same.

By then, I'd forgotten all about Greg and his BS; I was having a lot of fun, and that was all that mattered to me at the moment.

* * *

><p><strong><em>Seven hours later...<em>**

By the time we'd gotten sick and tired of roughhousing in the water, it was close to six in the evening. Sean and I hauled ourselves out of the water, changed back into our regular clothes, and decided to sit around and do a bit of people watching

We'd also decided to trade random questions back and forth again.

Thankfully, we had some common interests this time - we were both into older rock bands like the Allman Brothers and Guns n' Roses and Depeche Mode, and - oddly enough - Sean seemed to like Taylor Swift; we both loved The Sandlot, Iron Man 1 and 2, and Despicable Me; and he was as much of a reader as I was.

I smirked wryly. "Wow, who woulda' thought we'd have that much in common?"

"Yeah, who woulda' thought?"

We were both silent for a moment - well, until I decided to pop some out-of-the-blue question that had been on my mind for a while now.

"What do you like about having an actual family?" I asked quietly.

Sean shrugged. "I dunno... I guess it's having everybody you love really close to you, although not so much with my little sis, Kimmy. She gets a little annoying sometimes."

_Lucky. I'd kill to have a little sister._

I sighed. "I've always wanted a sibling... I'd love to have a little sister to play dress up with or somebody to help out with boy-related situations... A little brother wouldn't be bad, either - I could always poke a little fun at him, show him how to do cool stuff-"

All of a sudden, my ranting was cut short as Sean's mouth covered mine. My eyes bulged in surprise, but they then fluttered closed.

_Holy shit... My first kiss..._

I was having my first kiss, and...

Nothing. I felt nothing.

Gently, I pulled away from Sean, sighing; that wasn't how I'd pictured my first kiss, really. I'd pictured it being magical - like, fireworks-magical. That was anything but fireworks-magical.

"Sean, I like you, I really do - but I don't like you that way. I'm sorry," I said lamely, feeling utterly crappy for having to break that bit of news to him in that way.

Disappointed, he nodded, but he then put on a brave face and smiled. "Don't be. It's not your fault for not liking me that way, Stella. Trust when I say this, it's totally cool if you just wanna be friends."

Now I smiled.

_You see, and this is EXACTLY why I like you, Sean - you get me._

"Thanks dude - means a lot." I stuck my hand out for him to shake. He gladly took it, but he surprised me by pulling me into a quick, one-armed hug. I laughed softly. "Filled with all sorts of lovin' today, aren't we Redgrave?"

"You bet." Sean let go, stood up, then (like a true gentleman) helped me to my feet.

I grinned. "So, I'm curious - you wanna stay for dinner?"

"Uh, I'm not sure... I mean, I'd freakin' love to, but I dunno what my family wants to do tonight..."

Sean explained as he pulled his phone out from his jeans pocket, and checked his messages. He scowled after a moment of thumbing through his texts. "Damn... I'm sorry, but my mom wants me home now - says we're having family over for dinner tonight. Sorry Stella."

I shrugged. "Nah, it's fine. We'll just have to have you eat over another night."

"Alright then, awesome." Sean started jogging towards the cars, and propped up a mountain bike parked next to Rob's little tin can of a car. He waved to me, and sat down on it. "See you around Stella."

"You too."

Then, I watched as Sean pedaled back towards his house, not moving or taking my eyes off of his retreating figure until he'd all but disappeared from my sights.

Conveniently enough, as soon as I couldn't see Sean anymore, Lenny stuck his head out the front door, and called me and everyone else in for some dinner - said we were having pizza.

"Is it dehydrated?" Keith piped up as we walked through the front door. "Please don't tell me it's dehydrated."

Lenny shook his head, and smiled. "Nope, just regular old pizza. We've got cheese, pepperoni, sausage n' mushroom..."

Possibilities started running wild in my head at the thought of pizza toppings. "How 'bout meat n' cheese?"

From inside the kitchen, Marcus grinned. "Yep. We got the meat lover's special just for you, Stella. It's the third box on the table."

I honestly could've died and gone to heaven then - meat lover's special pizza. I'd been blessed by the pizza gods themselves.

"This day just got ah-mazing!" I chirped in a sing-song voice as I danced to the pizza boxes. I quickly opened the third box, and stared dreamily at the meat-covered pie sitting before me. I sighed blissfully. "Now, THIS is what I'm talking about."

As I grabbed a plate and piled a few slices of pizza on it, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Rob's face twist up in slight disgust. "That is just sick, just absolutely sick. I honestly can't understand why you would eat that."

I slowly looked up at Rob, and smiled lazily.

Then, trying to channel a 1940's pin-up girl, I picked up a big, extra-meaty piece of pizza, and slowly took a big bite out of it. I chewed, swallowed, and shot Rob an eat-shit smirk. "Because Rob, it tastes good."

Rob only shuddered, and turned away before I could _REALLY _make him squirm. As soon as he did,

Marcus burst out laughing. "And now you see why Stella is my favorite."

_I rolled my eyes and laughed under my breath. Only for you, Marcus... Only for you._

* * *

><p><strong><em>After dinner...<em>**

By the time dinner was over, I'd managed to inhale the entire meat lover's pizza, and then went on to make a solid dent in the pepperoni. Seriously, I think I'd eaten enough pizza to gain five or six pounds. Even then though, I didn't care - having all that pizza was my way of making it up to my stomach for the morning's dehydrated breakfast screw-up.

"Wow... That was a good dinner," I sighed happily as I kicked back in the kids room window seat. "I really liked it."

At the other end of the seat, Charlie laughed softly. "Yeah, I saw. I dunno how you do it, but kudos to you for puttin' away ten pieces of pizza."

"I try," I grinned.

For a moment, neither of us said much. Charlie started doing some weird snapping thing with her hands, and I just looked out the window at the shore, right at the spot where Sean and I had been sitting when he'd kissed me.

Nobody knows what happened... Not even Charlie knows...

For some odd reason, the fact that Charlie, my best friend, didn't know that I'd been blindsided with a kiss from Sean seriously bothered me. I couldn't explain it, but there was something that just made me feel so ridiculously lame about keeping that moment a secret from her that I couldn't take it.

I suddenly had to tell her, otherwise I was pretty sure that I would keel over and die from guilt overload.

"Hey Charlie," I started quietly. "There's something I've gotta tell you."

"Okay, what's up?"

Rather than look at her, I looked out the window, swallowing in discomfort as I tried to psych myself into telling Charlie what had happened.

For a second, nothing happened. Charlie frowned in concern. "Uh, Stella? Are you-"

"Sean kissed me before he left!" I blurted out. "We were sitting by the lake, and before he left he kissed me on the mouth!"

Immediately after confessing that, I heard a low thump on the floor. Startled, I looked down, and saw Charlie lying on the floor. I groaned.

_Shit, she fainted. God, what the hell was I thinking telling her that?_

Before I could mentally berate myself anymore, Charlie had jumped back up on her feet, and proceeded to gawk at me with this horrified look on her face. "He... He kissed you?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he did." Quickly, before Charlie could say anything, I added, "I didn't exactly like it though. It felt...weird, and just really awkward." I sighed. "It didn't feel... You know, right, the way a first kiss should be."

"Ohhh... So, I'll assume you don't like Sean?"

"Not that way, no. As a regular friend though, yes."

A huge grin split across Charlie's face then, and she exhaled happily. "Looks like my plan isn't ruined after all," she said as she leaned back against the wall.

_Oh, get a life Charlie._

Just then, Greg, Keithie, Donna, Andre, and Bean trudged into the room, looking slightly aggravated and bored out of their minds - especially Keithie. I mean, the kid literally took three steps into the room, and fell face-forward on the bed with a melodramatic "This sucks!"

My brows furrowed in confusion. "What's his damage?"

"He's acting all emo 'cause our dad won't give us our phones," Greg explained casually.

As if to further prove his brother's point, Keithie groaned loudly into the bed's comforter. "I'm in hell!" he whined. "I can't take it!"

I rolled my eyes. "Whoopee-friggin'-doo, Keithie. Can you shut up now?"

Greg chuckled softly. "Thank you. 'Bout time somebody told him to can it."

I said nothing, and instead chose to look at Greg suspiciously.

I didn't get it; he was acting all nicey-nicey and friendly, like things had just magically gone back to normal, and quite frankly, I couldn't make any sense of it. Who knows? Maybe the clothes he was wearing right now (regular old pajama pants and a t-shirt) were making him have a mood swing or something weird like that.

_Well, it's a helluva lot better than that stupid getup he had on a few hours ago._

Greg must've noticed me staring at him, because he smirked and said, "Jeez Stella, can't get enough of me, can you?"

_Pfft, you wish._

I was about to counter with something clever, but before I could, Becky ran into the room with tears streaming down her face. Concerned, both Greg and I stood up and asked her what was wrong.

Becky sniffled. "There-there-there's n-no tooth fairy!" She then practically jumped on me, wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and started crying.

Feeling Becky suddenly crying into my shoulder made my heart sorta' tweak; kids her age weren't supposed to know that the tooth fairy didn't exist.

Yeah, she'd learn it someday, but that someday wasn't supposed to be for a while - like, at least until she was nine or ten. Now though, when she was six or seven and still into fairytales... It was just too soon to know that.

Gently, I rubbed Becky's back with one hand and stroked her hair with the other. "No tooth fairy? Who told you that?"

"M-mommy did! She told me that she'd p-put a dollar under my p-pillow!"

_Roxanne you witch, how could you do that to your own kid?_

Keithie, who had taken a break from his moaning and groaning and self-pity, sat up and sighed.

"You see, this is why we need our phones back - if we had 'em, we could've shot mom a text and told her that Becky's tooth came out..."

I groaned. "Dude, you're not..." Just then, before I could finish my thought, I got an idea - a good one, too. "Speaking of phones... Charlie, your grandma brought her knitting gear with her, right?"

Charlie nodded slowly, not really sure where I was going with this. "Yeah, why?"

"Well, I was thinking that if we hunt down some paper cups, then we could make cup phones," I explained to her with a smile on my face.

Charlie grinned then, and nodded in agreement. "Good idea! Yeah, I'll grab some yarn, and you find some cups, okay?" Then, she took off to find Mama Ronzoni and her stash of knitting yarn with a huge, happy smile on her face.

As soon as she was gone, Becky pulled away from my shoulder, rubbed her eyes, and looked at me with a puzzled frown on her face. "What're cup phones?" she asked me softly.

I faked shock. "You don't know cup phones are? Why, they're only the cooliest, most awesome way to talk to somebody! They're a blast, Becky!"

With a smile on my face, I helped her stand up, and led her to the kitchen. "C'mon, lets go find some paper cups, then me and Charlie will show you how to make 'em."

So, that's what we did - Becky and I got a bunch of cups, Charlie got a bunch of yarn, and we showed everyone how to make a cup phone.

Pretty soon, there was telephone yarn criss-crossing all over the room, we all had at least two or three cups in our hands, and we were all kicking back, relaxing in our beds (all except for Andre, who'd insisted that he try talking to us inside the bathroom with the door closed... Hey, whatever makes the kid happy, I guess), and having a good bit of fun.

_This is great, I thought with a happy smile. No drama, no bullshit, no hormones - just plain old fun. God, I feel like a little kid again..._

The sound of Greg asking me if I could hear him for what seemed like the fifth time interrupted my thoughts. I rolled my eyes, smiled, and said, "Yes Greg, I can hear you."

"Sweetness." He peered over the cup in his hand, and grinned at me. I couldn't help but grin back.

Then of course, Charlie had to ruin that almost-perfect little moment by making kissy noises into her phone. "Greg and Stella, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-"

For that, I whipped a pillow at her.

Keithie started laughing after I hucked my pillow at Charlie. "Nice comeback, Stella," he started before he picked up a pillow from the window seat, "but I'll do you one better." He then whipped his at my face with a whoop that made him sound like a deranged cowboy, and started cackling when it hit me squarely in the face.

Naturally, as soon as that happened, everyone else started throwing pillows at each other, and soon we were all caught up in an epic pillow fight.

Apparently, the pillow fight must've been a bit too epic, because Lenny stormed into the room then with a look of disbelief on his face.

For a moment, we all froze - well, first I seized my chance to whack Charlie with a lumbar pillow, and then I froze.

"I thought we had a..." Lenny's voice trailed off when he saw the cup phones in Greg's hands. "Are those...cup phones?"

Greg flashed a grin at his dad. "Yeah, Charlotte and Stella taught us how to make 'em. Cool, huh?"

He pointed to Becky, who was sitting on a dresser with a cup phone in each hand. "Check out Becky's."

Smiling, Becky chirped, "Look dad, I've got cup waiting!" Quickly, she spoke into the cup in her right, telling whoever it was at the other end that she was "on the Spongebob."

Curly started barking (although I have no friggin' clue as to how he was barking with a cup covering his snout and essentially muzzling him), then Bean, in response, sat up in the trunk at the end of the bed, and asked if he just heard a turkey.

At that point then, we were all back to talking like Lenny had never even walked into the room.

A moment later, Lenny waltzed over to the bathroom door to put the moves on Andre (who had decided to strike up a conversation with Greg about "listening to Jasmine clean herself in the shower tomorrow"... Pig), and after scaring the living hell outta the kid, he took the phone, grinning, and said to us, "Attention, children! There's been a request from the phone company - would you please install a cup phone in every adult bedroom right away?"

We all immediately nodded - this wasn't an opportunity we were gonna pass up. So, we all ran out of the kids room with string and cups in our hands, grinning like idiots.

_As far as I'm concerned, this is the GREATEST thing I've done in years._

* * *

><p><strong>AN Chapter 7 is done! It was so fun to write anyway, I really wanna get 100 reviews for this story. I don't have to but it would be nice. Also 76 reviews that's amazing! Virtual hug to everyone! Love you guys. Any way hoped you liked it R&R. Chapter 8 should be up soon. Bye! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Coach Buzzer's Granddaughter Chapter 10**

**A/N Okay don't hate me or my beta reading she's amazing for the record I so sorry this took so long! But We are both back an AHH! I'm so excited, I missed writing this story! I promise to get the chapter beta by friday and hopfully have it up either Saturday or Sunday, I have crazy Ideas going through my head, I don't know if you guys should be scared or excited, so yeah! Read on!**

**Disclaimer: After all this Time I still don't own Grown Ups or even the books used in this chapter ... Darn**

* * *

><p><em>You know, I always found it kinda' funny that someone could fall asleep in one position, then wake up the next morning in a totally different – and totally awkward – one and not have the faintest friggin' idea of how or why they got there.<em>

If you're wondering what this has to do with anything, well, that's the thought I had when I woke up at ten twenty-seven this morning, feeling sore and, with the way my back was aching, old.

"Crap, that kills," I groaned tiredly as I sat up in the girls' bed and arched my back, wincing as the vertebrae in my spine creaked and cracked in protest. "Ah, holy mother…"

Before I could continue my bitching, Charlie poked her head into the room. She shook her head when she saw me trying to work out the kinks in my back.

"'Bout flippin' time you got up," she snorted. "Some of us were wondering if you were still alive."

"Oh, shut up, Charlie," I grumbled as I shot her an irritated glare. "I was up late. You of all people should know that."

"No, you weren't - I know that for a fact. You're just a sloth in the morning, Stella."

I shot Charlie another glare. "Again Charlie, shut up."

"Whatever," she sighed. She then walked in and over to her suitcase, and started tossing her clothes left and right in search of something. "Me, Andre and the others are heading down to the lake - you wanna come with?"

I yawned. "Yeah, sure. Just gimme a few minutes to wake up and get my suit on." Sluggishly, I rolled out of bed, and padded over to my suitcase. "Be warned though, I'm probably not doing any swimming today."

"Why not?"

I shrugged as I pulled out my suit, boardshorts, and the t-shirt Jasmine gave me. "'Cause I don't wanna get wet today, that's all."

Charlie shook her head. "You're so weird sometimes... Whatever. I'm gonna go get my suit on." She then waltzed out of the kids' room, and into the bathroom on the other side of the hall.

_Yeah, you do that, Charlie..._

Sighing sleepily, I scooped up my stuff and trudged into the kids' bathroom to change, throw my hair into a ponytail, and brush my teeth. Once I'd taken care of that, I walked back out to grab something to read from my suitcase. To my slight annoyance, Charlie had decided to head outside without waiting for me, so that left me alone in the kids' room.

Well, for the time being, anyway. Just then, Greg walked into the room, twirling a still-dry towel in his hand and whistling what sounded like Bobby McFerrin's _Don't Worry Be Happy._ As soon as I turned around to face him though, he stopped whistling, and smirked at me. "And she lives!" he cried out with a grin on his face like he'd been the one trying to cajole me outta bed.

My brows furrowed, and looked at him in slight aggravation. "Hur-hur-hur, you're hilarious, Feder." I paused to dig through my suitcase for a pair of flip-flops and a tube of sunblock before speaking again. "Dude, where the hell's Charlie? Did you see her run by before you came in here?"

"Yeah, I saw her - she was bookin' it for the lake with Donna and my brother," he shrugged. His face scrunched up in a frown as he watched me dig deeper into my stuff for my books. "Uh, Stella? What're you doing?"

I was silent as I rifled through my suitcase. At last though, I found what I was looking for. Quickly, I yanked out the two books I'd brought with me, and held them up for Greg to see. "Looking for these," I replied as I waved my slightly battle-scarred copies of The Hunger Games and Lord of the Flies in the air. "I figure if I'm not gonna swim, then I might as well do something productive."

Greg stared at the books for a moment before looking at me with a weird expression on his face. "Okay, you're telling me you'd rather read a book than go swimming?"

I only nodded. As I did, he looked at me funny. "You're so weird sometimes, Stella," he said with a shake of his head.

_Pfft, yeah, likewise Feder._

"Glad you think so. Moving on now," I retorted curtly before proceeding to shove him out of the room with an irritated huff.

Greg snorted. "Jeez Stella, feelin' touchy today, aren't we?"

"Ah, shut up, Greg."

"I'll take that as a yes, then."

I rolled my eyes, and kept walking. By now, we were in the kitchen, and of course, my stomach was growling.

Giving Greg one last shove, I said, "You go on ahead without me." I darted into the kitchen, grabbed a plate, and started loading it up with left-over bacon, scrambled eggs, some raspberry danish (big thanks to whoever brought that), and a non-dehydrated apple. "I'll be out in a sec - I seriously need to put some gas in the tank."

"Yeah, I noticed. Your stomach sounds like it's ready to kill you."

At the sound of his snarky comment, I put my plate of breakfast down on the nearest counter, picked up the apple, and spun on my heel to face Greg. I put one hand on my hip, and looked at him with an annoyed frown on my face. "Greg - you do realize that I've got a rock-hard green apple roughly the size of a baseball in my hand, right?"

"Yeah - so?"

"SO," I drawled as I started walking towards him slowly, "If I'm holding a potentially-lethal piece of fruit, and you're standing in front of me shooting smart-ass comments, then..."

Greg scoffed. "Oh what, you're gonna throw an apple at me?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of _whip_, but yep, you got it!"

"Whip an apple at me, Stella? You can't be serious."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Try me," I said simply, then tossed the apple in the air for added emphasis, and gave Greg something along the lines of a Chesire cat grin. "Now, you gonna button your lip and go ahead like I asked you to?"

The only answer I got was the sound of the front door slamming. I grinned.

_Good boy, Greggie._

"At last, I can eat breakfast in peace," I murmured to myself before placing my loaded plate on top of my books, grabbing a fork, and making my way towards the lake shore. "'Bout bloody time..."

Outside, I managed to grab a seat beside Gloria, who was reclining in an Adirondacks chair and reading a book with a smile on her face. Curious, I tilted my head a little to see the title. Aloud, I read, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn... Huh..."

As soon as I spoke, Gloria stopped reading, and looked up at me with a slightly puzzled frown on her face. "Morning there, Stella. Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I was reading the name of your book." I quickly pointed to the cover to further back up my statement.

Gloria smiled. "Ah, yes... A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - I've loved this book since I was a little girl. Have you ever read it?"

I shook my head. "Nope, can't say I have," I said as I sat down in my chair, plate of food resting in my lap, and scooped up a forkful of scrambled eggs. "What's it about?" I asked her as I popped the eggs into my mouth.

"Well," she started, "it's about a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, about ten or so odd years before World War I gets going."

"Okay... Is this girl some super-rich, super-fancy debutante-sorta' brat?"

"Oh no, not at all. Francie's-"

"Francie? Who's Francie?"

"Francie Nolan, the young girl. She actually grows up near-poor with her parents, her younger brother Neeley, and her baby sister Annie Laurie. Sometimes, it's kind of sad - her mother nearly kills herself working to bring in money for the family, and her father's a drunk. But still, the way this lady wrote the book..." Gloria sighed and smiled before finishing her sentence. "You almost become jealous of the way she lives, and the family she has."

I frowned, confused by what she meant. "How so?"

"Well, Francie and her family get along really well, and they always stick up for each other. They never lie to each other, they do what they can to help out, and so on."

I nodded slowly. "Awesome family." I paused to take another bite of eggs; as I chewed, a thought came to my head. "You know, I kinda' wish I had a family like that... Least then I might still have my dad sticking around with me and my mom..."

"Father left your mom when you were born?"

"Probably... The only I know about him is that he's made my mom kinda' afraid to trust guys, and he's left me without a real family."

"I think you're wrong there, honey."

"Oh?" I said as I raised my eyebrows. "What makes you say that?"

"You've got us," Gloria replied with a grin on her face. "You've got your mom, you've got Charlotte, Andre, Donna, Bean, Greg, Keith, Becky... Honey, need I say more?"

I shook my head and smiled. "Nah, guess not."

I said nothing else then; I only wolfed down the rest of my breakfast, picked up Lord of the Flies, and started reading.

_The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another... _

Before I could continue reading, I noticed Greg staring at me out of the corner of my eye like a dog staring at a ribeye steak. I rolled my eyes.

"So tell me Greg," I deadpanned, "you can't get enough of me now?"

Despite the shade of cherry tomato red his face was turning, Greg managed to snap back, "HA, you're funny! For your information, I was staring at our suitcases!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yep, I'm sure you were." With a dismissive wave of my hand, I stood up, picked up my now-spotless plate, and started walking back to the house to toss it in the sink. "Whatever Greg..."

As I made my way up the front steps and through the front door to the kitchen, I couldn't help but think about how Greg reacted to me calling him out; he'd insisted that he'd been staring at some suitcases - oh, correction, _the Feders' suitcases_ - and not at me, although I HIGHLY doubted that. I sighed and shook my head.

_Suitcases, Greg? What kind of lame excuse is..._

That's when it hit me.

Wait a minute... OH YEAH, Greg's leaving for Milan today...

_Shit. I forgot about that._

Truth be told, I was gonna miss Lenny's family - Greg, especially. He'd been a lot of fun to hang out with - well, he had been fun to hang out with most of the time, anyway. To be honest, knowing that they were leaving today suddenly put a huge damper on my mood.

_Ah, damn it. I sound like a priss._

A couple minutes after the realization hit me, Roxanne waltzed by me in this little designer number, and as if to confirm my thoughts, she had a Louis Vuitton suitcase in one hand, and a little dark gray Blackberry in the other. Seeing this, I frowned sadly.

_Yep - they're definitely heading out._

As Roxanne was heading for the front door, she noticed me standing in the kitchen with the somewhat glum look on my face. She quickly stopped, turned to me, and smiled. "Stella honey," she started, "It was lovely to meet you and stay with you. I really do hope to see you again soon-"

Before Roxanne could finish, the sound of Greg, Donna, Keithie, Andy and Charlie caught her attention (not to mention mine, too); curious, we both scurried out to the porch to find out what the hell was going on, and what we saw made our jaws drop.

They were playing in the water, really playing in the water - Charlie, Donna and Keithie were skipping rocks, and Greg and Andy were having a splash fight with each other, and from the looks of it, they were having a great time, too.

_Holy crap... They're actually goofing off outside. Holy frickin' CRAP..._

Roxanne must've been thinking the same thing, because she laughed and shook her head in disbelief. "My god, I never thought I'd see the day when my children finally started playing outside," she mused in awe. "Look at them... They're having so much fun..."

_Yeah, and it's about damn time they did._

Neither of us said anything as we watched the others have fun - well, it wasn't until we saw Keithie help Donna skip a rock that Roxanne spoke up, yelling "Bravo!" to Donna after she managed to make her rock skip twice.

Dumping her suitcase on the porch, Roxanne made her way down to the lake shore with a huge grin on her face. I, with my curiosity now piqued, followed behind her, interested to see what she was gonna say or do.

When I got to the shore, Donna was looking at Roxanne with a weird frown on her face. "Do... you know how to skip rocks, Mrs. Feder?" she asked her in a polite, yet surprised voice.

"Are you kidding? I am the best at this!" Roxanne scoffed back in reply as she planted her hands on her hips.

I quirked an eyebrow. _Roxanne Feder skipping a rock, eh... Okay - THIS I've gotta see._

"All right Roxanne, let's see these mad rock-skipping skills of yours," I chirped to her as she took a rock Keithie had given her into her perfectly manicured hand, and readied herself. "Show me what you've got."

Roxanne happily obliged; with a confident smirk on her face, she got into a position that reminded me of a matador about to wave his flag in front of a bull - in short, a really weird stance for skipping rocks, if you ask me.

_Oh-kay, you don't see THAT every day..._

She dropped the rock into her right hand, holding it tightly as she brought her arm back. Then, she roughly whipped it forward, and sent the rock hurtling...

Straight into Greg's stomach.

As he doubled over with the rock clutched in his hand, I just started cracking up - REALLY hard. I couldn't help it; I just bent over and these super-huge belly laughs just started pouring out. As lame as it was, it was hard _not_ to laugh at what had just happened to Greg.

On the other hand, Roxanne looked utterly horrified at what she had just done. "Baby, are you okay?" she asked in a high voice.

Despite the fact that he'd just taken a rock to the stomach, Greg managed to stand up, although he was clutching the spot where the rock had hit. "Yeah, I'm fine mom," he said, grimacing slightly. "I'm just glad to see you having some fun."

Even though she was looking at him like she didn't believe a word he'd just said, Roxanne nodded silently, then turned around, and started walking back to the house, the horrified look still plastered to her face. As I watched her move farther away from us, I started laughing again.

"Oh MAN Greg, that was just PERFECT. You should've seen yourself! Oh MAN..."

Greg stuck his tongue out at me. "Oh hardy-har-har, Stella." He started trudging through the water to the shore. "It wasn't _that_ funny."

"Oh yes it was, especially 'cause you were on the receiving end of that thro - OH NO, you're SO not getting me wet!"

"Aw, why not?" He grinned at me. "A little water never hurt anyone."

I huffed. "Greg, I've got a hardcover book in my hands, and I'm not afraid to use it. That's _why _you're not getting me-"

Before I could even finish what I was saying, I was immediately cut off when Marcus stuck his head out the door and hollered to us about suiting up and going to a waterpark. Greg looked at me, and smirked.

"Well, looks to me like you are getting wet today, Stella," he said with a chuckle.

"Oh, screw you, Greg. Ju-just-just-URGH! I hate you!"

"Ha ha, the amazing Stella Connelly has been left speechless by Greg Feder!"

My only response to that was to give him the finger. Thankfully, that got him moving away from me quickly.

When I saw him dart back into the house, I closed my eyes, and held my forehead in my hands, groaning in exasperation.

_Ugh, the one day I really don't feel like swimming, we all decide to go to a waterpark._

I shook my head. _Goddamn it._

* * *

><p>I'll be honest, I was in a REALLY crappy mood by the time we got to the waterpark - some big-time vacation trap by the name of Water Wizz that reminded me of those superparks up north in Wisconsin. The sun was rising higher in the sky, the temperature was starting to climb into the high eighties, and the place was loaded with people in gaudy swimsuits and a bazillion screaming kids. As if that wasn't bad enough, I had to put up with Greg acting all 'in your face' and like an all-around jackass. By the time we'd all found someplace to camp out, I was ready to deck Greg, he was pissing me off so much.<p>

"You know Feder, you're either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid if you think you can survive razzing me," I said to him irritably as I flopped down in a shaded lounge chair and closed my eyes.

Greg chuckled. "Hey, we all know I can take the heat from you, Connelly." He leaned down towards me. "Oh, by the way," he breathed into my ear, "I'm not going anywhere 'til you get in the water."

To say that Greg managed to make me feel funny would be one hell of an understatement. I swear to god, the way that boy had just talked to me was doing things to my head, my heart and my stomach.

_Oh, holy hell Feder, you're gonna be the death of me. Damn jitters..._

I barely managed to squeak out, "You know, I'm good for right now."

Of course, matters weren't helped much with the sudden appearance of Charlie, Andre and Donna. "Aw, c'mon Stella!" Charlie whined. "Come swim with us!"

Donna nodded in agreement. "Yeah Stella, come swim with us! We're at a waterpark, for crying out loud!"

I shook my head. "Pass."

"Well, if you're not gonna go swimming, at least come with me and Andre to get some ice cream."

I groaned. "Do I _have_ to, Greg?"

"Yes, buzzkill, you have to come with us."

"But-"

"Nope, no buts, end of discussion." Without hesitating, Greg and Andre grabbed my arms, and pulled me onto my feet. "C'mon, it'll only take a second."

I sighed heavily. "_FINE_, I'll go get some freckin' ice cream with you guys," I grumbled. "So you know, I'm not happy about being dragged around with you guys."

"Ah, quit being such a crabass," Greg said as we started walking to the concession stand. "Live a little, Stella - have some fun."

"Oh, shut up."

The three of us finally reached the concession stand, and Greg and Andre bought their ice cream. Before we turned around to head back, Greg offered to buy me a cone. I told him no thanks - the offer was appreciated, but I wasn't in the mood for ice cream at the moment.

Bored out of my skull, I started walking along the edge of a wading pool as we made our way back to everyone else. As we did, I sighed. "I'm sorry, I have no idea in hell why you guys made me come with you, I mean, it's not like someone's gonna waltz on by and kidnap you or anything-"

"Okay, Stella," Andre cut in, "two things - one, you talk too much; and two, HOLD YOUR BREATH!"

All of a sudden, he hip-checked me into the wading pool; it didn't do much, other than make me stumble backwards a few steps. As soon as I did though, I realized that I was standing right under one of those buckets that tipped over and dumped water every forty-five seconds or so and utterly drenched you. At the moment, it was on the verge of tipping - and I was standing directly under the blast area.

_Ohhh CRAP._

I tried to get outta there before the water fell, but that didn't happen. Before I knew it, I had two tons of water crashing down on me, soaking me to the bone.

Thankfully, the drenching didn't last too long. As soon as the water stopped falling, I spat out the water in my mouth, and stared at Andre with a look of complete death in my eyes.

"Andre Mackenzie," I started flatly, "you have five seconds to run."

"Before what?"

I shrugged. "Before I come over there and kill you - slowly, and very painfully."

He didn't need to be told twice. The second the last word left my mouth, Andre took off for the safety of our shade as fast as his legs would carry him. As we watched him run like all holy hell, Greg looked at me with a weird frown on his face.

"Wait a sec - you're not gonna chase him?"

I shook my head. "As tempting as it sounds, I'm too lazy to chase the dork around right now. So, _no_, I'm not gonna bother."

"Okay, then."

The both of us strolled back to our seats; when we got there, we found Andre standing behind his sister with what looked like an underwater skateboard in his hands - no doubt something to help fend me off when I decided to let my wrath rain down on him.

Charlie frowned, her eyes taking in my soaked appearance. "What happened to you?"

"King Idiot there" - I pointed irritably to Andre - "thought it would be a brilliant idea to hip-check me into the wading pool and lemme get soaked by that gargantuan bucket thingy," I explained to her simply. "I told him he had five seconds to run before I came after him to kill him."

"Ah..." Turning around to face her brother, Charlie put her hands on her hips. "I'll say Andre, that was real intelligent," she quipped.

"Oh, what! Least now she can hit the slides with us and the parents!" he protested.

I groaned. "Jesus - whatever! You got me wet! Moving on now!" With a sharp sigh, I went over to my chair, and peeled off the jean shorts and red tank top I'd been wearing as cover-ups, thereby exposing the alternative blue bikini I'd packed for the trip. I sighed again.

"Good grief, I feel like I'm in my underpants right now."

"Relax, you look fine. You've got enough covering your chest and your butt, Stella," Charlie snorted. "Just relax - and if it makes you feel any better, remember to pack a one-piece next time."

"Yeah, duly noted."

"Great - now can you come on the slides with us? I'm kinda' starting to fry just standing here."

"Yeah," I exhaled, "we can hit the slides now. Let's go."

* * *

><p>Moments later, I was standing with Charlie, Donna, Greg, Andre, and Keithie in a line that could've stretched all the way to Alaska, it was so long. Well, at least it was that long after an hour of standing around. Before then, we'd nabbed a spot in line when it was more or less short.<p>

"This is lame," I whined. "I hate long lines - and it's hot, too!"

"Brilliant observation, Sherlock," Greg commented sarcastically. "Where the hell have you been for the last hour?"

"Bite me, Greg - it's hot out, and I feel like I'm roasting right now! URGH, why can't this line just MOVE!"

"Because there's fifty thousand kids up at the top screaming bloody murder," Marcus suddenly cut in. "You know, 'Mommy, I don't wanna go down! It's too scary!'"

I quirked an eyebrow. "And you would know this _how_?"

Marcus pointed to the top of the slides. "How do you not hear that? You could hear the rugrats clear to Albany."

_Oh my god, I'm never gonna get outta this stupid line. Fack, fack, fack, fack, fack..._

By now, Lenny, Eric, Kurt, Bean and Becky had cozied up behind us, and were now waiting with us to hit the slides. Thankfully, they were acting much more behaved than some of these other people in front of us.

Donna sighed heavily. "Daddy, this line's not even moving."

Eric only sighed, too tired to say anything in reply.

_Yeah, I feel your pain, buddy._

Of course, Bean had to go and make things more irritating when he started badgering his dad for something to drink - yep, the mommy's milk.

"I want mommy's milk."

"I know you do, son, but-"

"Mommy's milk! Mommy's milk! Mommy's milk!"

At that moment then, Eric finally hit his breaking point. "Damn it," he swore, "no more mommy's milk! You drink regular milk!" Conveniently enough, a pudge with a carton of milk in his hand breezed by as soon as that had been said. Wasting no time, Eric reached out, and grabbed the milk from the kid, despite the protests he got in return. He then handed it off to Bean, and said, "Drink it straight out of the carton."

Bean looked at his dad warily. "I don't know if mommy'll want me to..." he said uneasily.

_Oh, good grief._

"Just drink it!" Eric hissed. "Just like daddy! Here, lemme show you!" He then took the carton, took a sip of milk, then handed it back to Bean. He shrugged.

"Okay..." He hesitantly took a sip - and he smiled. "I'm just like daddy!" he chirped as applause sounded from us.

Lenny gave a little hurrah. "Yeah, no more booby milk!"

"Yeah, more for us!" Kurt chimed in.

I shot him a look as soon as I heard that. "Kurt, I'm shocked," I said jokingly. "You're startin' to sound like good ole' Marcus now."

"He learned only from the best."

_Marcus, you've now officially left me speechless._

Greg sighed then. "Ugh, we're gonna be here forever," he groaned in exasperation.

All of a sudden, Marcus's face lit up, like he'd just had a stroke of genius. "Not anymore," he said. "Follow me."

We all decided to humor the man. We followed him as he maneuvered out of the line, and started leading us to a fenced-off area of the slides.

I already didn't like where this was going.

"Marcus," I started slowly. "Where are you taking-"

"Wait a sec, kiddo, lemme make this stupid hole a bit bigger..." He did, and then he turned to the rest of us with an excited grin on his face. "All right, back door shuffle - cut the line, and go."

I stared at Marcus for a second. "Uh, won't we get tossed outta here?"

"Only if we're caught."

Well, that was comforting to know - _NOT._ _Oh, dear god help me or strike me down dead where I stand now._

Nonetheless, I did what everyone else was doing, and stepped through the hole to the set of stairs in front of me. As I did, I briefly heard Marcus suggest that Amber hold his hand - being it was kinda' dark inside and all.

I rolled my eyes. "Dork," I muttered to myself.

Just then, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. Looking towards the source of the tap, I came face-to-face with Greg. He grinned sheepishly.

"It is kinda' dark in here, Stella. It might actually be a good idea to hold my hand."

For a second, I just stared at Greg; I honestly couldn't believe he'd just used that line on me.

"Greg Feder," I started, "you are now officially the sappiest human being I know" - at that moment, I smirked, and laced my fingers with his - "but, I think I'll take you up on that offer."

So, I walked up the stairs with Greg, my hand in his, and my heart practically in my throat. As we were walking, I felt my cheeks start to heat up as the realization of what we were doing took its full effect. I mentally heaved a sigh. _Thank god it's too dark to see anybody's face right now._

When we finally got to the top, I went and stood by Charlie. As soon as I did, she turned to me with an impish smile on her face. "I saw you holding Greg's hand," she whispered with a smile. "Looked like you were enjoying it."

I shook my head. "You're unbelievable."

"All right Charlotte, you're up first."

With a nervous sigh, Charlie squeezed her eyes shut, and did a slapdash sign of the cross. Then, she ducked through a small door, and wormed up behind someone on the slide.

"Okay, as soon as she goes down," Lenny began, "you're up, Stella."

I nodded silently, and got ready. As soon as Charlie disappeared from sight, it was my turn.

_Here we go._

* * *

><p>About an hour later, I found myself trolling around the park with Greg and Andre, looking around for another ride to go on. So far, we weren't having much luck; we'd gone on just about every ride in the park - the lazy river, Pirate's Plunge, the Tornado, the Matador, you name it. Who knows? Maybe we'd hit every ride here.<p>

"You think we missed something?" Greg asked.

I shrugged. "Not that I know of..."

Just then, Andre pointed to a ride that had been built to look haphazard and dangerous. "I don't think we hit this one," he said.

I looked at it briefly; at the top, there was a zip line that went over one of the pools before ending at what looked like a shack. I'll be honest, the thing was pretty high over the water. It gave me the jitters just looking at it.

Greg hummed as he read the sign in front of us. "The Torture Track," he sounded out slowly.

"Pfft, HELL no."

"Aw, c'mon Stella," Greg whined, "it'll be fun! Please, I'd like the company!"

"Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. I really don't feel like dying today. And if you want company, just get your dad to go with you!"

Greg sighed. "FINE." He grinned all of a sudden, and raised his eyebrows in amusement. "Well, now that you mention dying, in the event I _do_ die, ya think you could give me a goodbye kiss?"

_Oh my god, did he just seriously say that?_ _Oh, HELL... Breathe Stella, breathe..._

I don't know why I did what I did two seconds later, but at the time, I really didn't give a damn. A moment after Greg had made the suggestion, I looked at him with an eat-shit smile on my face, leaned in, and kissed him on the cheek. As his face erupted in red, I asked Greg, "Will that work, Hollywood?"

I didn't wait for him to answer before I turned around and started walking back to our spot by the wading pools, a small smile welling up on my face. There was a good chance that what I just did was gonna come back and bite me in the ass, but right now, I didn't care - giving Greg that kiss on the cheek just felt right, and that was all that really mattered to me for now.

When I got back to the lounge chairs we'd occupied, Gloria and the moms were relaxing in a circle, all talking about... something. If I had to guess about what, then I might've said it was about guys. If that, then in that case, I had no interest in putting in my two bit's worth.

Sitting down for a bit and recharging, however, I _did_ have some interest in. So, that's what I did - I grabbed the closest lounge chair with some decent shade, and sprawled out on it with a tired sigh.

"Ah, _at last_, sweet relaxation," I breathed blissfully, shutting my eyes with a relieved smile on my face.

Unfortunately for me, my time to relax was short-lived when I heard someone shouting my name. Grumbling, I opened my eyes, and looked for whoever was calling me. I glanced up, and a second later, I saw Greg grinning and waving at me from the top of the Torture Track platform. I grinned.

"ROCK THAT ZIPLINE, FEDER!" I yelled up to him before giving him a thumbs-up.

Then, I watched as he went down the ride, cheering and laughing, before he let go and cannonballed into the pool below him.

I smiled and shook my head. _Oh man Greg, you have NO idea how awesome I think you are -_

"I love the way the both of you look at each other," somebody said all of a sudden. Puzzled, I looked around, and found myself looking at Roxanne, who had this huge, knowing sorta' grin on her face.

"Wait - huh?"

She nodded. "The way Greg looks at you, the way you look at Greg... It's really cute, honey."

_Uh-oh, I've got a bad feeling about where she's going with this..._

I decided to play dumb. "Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about."

As soon as I said that, the grin on Roxanne's face grew wider. "Ah... So you're in _that_ stage," she said.

Well, that whole 'play stupid' thing COMPLETELY backfired on me. I could've kicked myself then for that. I should've KNOWN she'd go that way.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid..._

"What do you mean, I'm in _that_ stage?"

"I mean that you're in the denial stage, Stella," Roxanne explained to me. "You like him, but you're trying to fool yourself into thinking you don't. Trust me honey, it happens to all of us." She smiled, and nodded her head to Lenny, who was horsing around with Becky in one of the kiddie pools. "When I first met Lenny, I already liked him; but, being the stubborn girl I was, I constantly tried to tell myself that I wouldn't go for him in a million years. But, he grew on me. Soon, we were dating, and before I knew it, we were getting married and starting a family." Roxanne smiled again, this time at me. "Believe me Stella, you'll get past that stage. If you really like someone, you'll always find a way past it."

What Roxanne had just said to me had stunned me into complete silence, and into some pretty deep thought. Maybe she was right. Maybe I was in that stage of denial. Maybe I was trying to convince myself that I didn't like Greg, that I hated his guts out.

_But, he grew on me... If you really like someone, you'll always find a way past it._

Damn it, I was trying to fool myself.

And I was failing. MISERABLY.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Guys I just realized this story has a 120 reviews ... I saw that and I started Crying, that's amazing, and the story isn't even that good! I love you guys so much. I promise My updates will be more frequently ... just, I love you guys. R&R**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Holy cow, I know you don't want to hear why I've been gone so yeah let's just get on and I'll leave that until the end.**

**Chapter Nine**

* * *

><p>"Ha ha! I beat you! Again!"<p>

I stared in disbelief at the board game as Lenny got up in his seat and did this weird Victory dance.

"How did you beat me again? That's five times already!" I said

It had started out as a simple game of chutes and ladders.

I thought it just be one simple game but after Lenny beat me and got cocky I was determined to beat him.

... that wasn't going so well.

"You've got to be cheating!" I argued

He say back down and looked at me in disbelief "Stella how can someone cheat at a game of chutes and ladders."

My cheeks got red because I thought that stupid thought "I - I don't know. How does someone win five times in a row?"

"Talent"

I nodded "Wow you're really talented. I guess you didn't get out much when you were younger?" I said giving him a complete backwards compliment.

"Hey. Now don't be such a sore loser Stella"

I pouted "I'm not. I refuse to play this game anymore."

Lenny threw his hands up "Aw come on Stella!"

I shook my head and got up "Nope. Play it with Marcus or something. How bout Greg?"

"That's a good Idea" he muttered before walking off to the kids room.

I walked to the kitchen and grabbed an apple before walking to the kids room.

I picked up lord of the flies.

I jumped on the bed, got situated before reading where I left off.

"Oh An apple" I herd Greg say before falling down next to me on the bed.

He took it out of my head and bit into it.

"Um I was going to eat that" I said to him

"Sorry " he said it came out muffled because he talked with his mouth full.

I looked at him in disgust and let him have the apple.

I went back to reading. Greg reading over my shoulder wasn't helping.

Just them my phone vibrated signaling someone was calling me.

I took it out. Pushed Greg off my shoulder.

I looked at the caller id.

Sean? Haven't talked to him since ... well yeah.

I picked up.

"Hello?" I asked

"Who is it?" Greg asked from behind me.

I put a finger to my lips, telling him to be quite.

He rolled his eyes and leaned back on the bed.

"Hey, Stella. Long time no talk"

"Sean? Hi" I said smiling

I herd Greg mutter something that I didn't hear clearly.

I slap him in the thigh.

"Hey what's up?" I asked

"Nothing bored out of my mind"

I nodded even though he couldn't see me "Same although I don't think that will last long. We're supposed to build a tree house today or something"

"Sounds awesome. I wish my family would do stuff together"

"What do you mean?" I slapped Greg's hand away.

He kept poking me in the side distracting me and making me squirm. He knows I'm very ticklish.

"We never do stuff together. My mom and sister are always off somewhere and my dad works a lot"

I felt bad. I know what it feels like. So I suggested "Come on over. Everyone will be glad to see you"

"Not everyone" Greg muttered. I shushed him.

"Really?"

I nodded "Yup"

"Okay I guess I could. See you in a bit"

"Bye" I said before hanging up.

As soon as the line went dead I turned to Greg ,"Would it kill you to be nice to him?" I asked

Greg began fake choking.

"God, you're such a child" I said getting up.

"Give me one reason why I should Stell" said Greg

"Maybe because he's nice! Even when you act like an ass. I mean what has he ever done to you? "

Greg just shook his head "You wouldn't understand"

"What do you mean I wouldn't understand?"

"Seriously Stella. It's nothing" he wasn't looking at me. He just kept his eyes on the ceiling.

"No tell me" I said shoving him.

He didn't answer so I shoved him again. I kept shoving him until he looked at me.

"You're not going to let it go are you?"

I shook my head.

"You're so stubborn" he said smiling a little.

"And you're annoying"

"Ouch Stella that hurt" he said sarcastically

"Good" I giggled

"I was expecting something more along the lines of Amazing, Hot, Charming -"

I snorted "Charming? Ha not even."

Before he could answer Charlie opened the door and Sean came in with her.

We were just looking at eachother.

"Awkward" said Charlie

"Well it wasn't until you said that" I stated

"You play basketball Sean?" Greg asked ignoring me and Charlie

Sean looked taken a back "Um, kind of. I'm not that good" he said

"Well, my dad's awesome. I'm sure he could teach us somethings" said Greg

"Cool"

"Come on, dude" said Greg leading him down the hall to where ever Lenny was.

"What just happened?" Asked Charlie

"I have no idea" I said

Then I walked to the door "Greg" I called out to him.

He turned around and waved Sean to go on outside with Keith "Yes?" He asked.

I bit my lip "Thank you"

"Excuse me? I don't think I heard that" he said sarcastically.

"Don't push it Feder" I said closing the door and walking back in the room

"Well that was odd" commented Charlie

As I laid back down on the bed.

"So what made Greg be so nice to Sean?" Charlie asked

I shrugged "Greg's confusing" I commented

"Only to you" she said.

Just then Becky came into the room.

"Look Stella, Charlie" she said pointing to her face

I looked closely and saw a hint of makeup.

"I'm wearing makeup" she said as if it was a great achievement.

"Who did it?" I questioned.

"Me" said the only lady with a Spanish accent. Roxanne.

She was looking at Becky in admiration. I bet she has never spent this much time with Becky.

"Well, girls, we are gonna go play some horse shoes. You girls wanna come?" She asked

"We'd love too" I said getting up as Charlie and I followed her outside.

Where it seemed everyone was hanging out like one big family. One big wacked up family.

"You play basketball Stella?" I herd Greg asked

I turned around to look at him "Yes. I am the best at basketball"

I snatched the basketball out of his hand and walked around him.

"That's traveling" he said

I began acting like I passing to my pretend teammate.

"Okay, that's really bad traveling" he said

Next thing I knew he grabbed me around the waist and spun me around making me scream.

"Hey, We don't have time for you love birds, I got teach Sean here, some tricks, Stella give me the ball" said Lenny

On purpose I threw the ball hard and it hit Lenny in the gut "Thanks Stella"

Just then Lenny took a shot at the goal, it went in with a swish " Greggie, Seany, that's how you do it. Now you see that buddies? I did the old bank shot. Banks open. Pick a Spot. Aim for it" he said making another shot.

"Oh, yeah. Your dad'll go 50 for 50 with these" said Eric.

"Really? Cause on the WII, the bank shot never works" argued Greg

"Well, you should Wii-Turn it and get a Wii-Fund" said Eric passing the ball back to Lenny, making me go into a fit of giggles.

Lenny turned around to face Roxanne "Babe you watching me?" He asked before throwing the ball behind him and making it. This sent us into a round of whoops and hollers.

"Come here for a minuet let me show you" he said waving Sean over to where he was standing.

A smile was spread across my face as I realized how well he got a long with everyone, surprisingly and even Greg.

Sean made it one shot, earning a High five from me.

"See Greg, this is what you can do when you wear normal people clothes" commented Lenny.

Sending me into another fit of laughter.

"Okay Stella, your turn." Said Lenny

"Hollywood, say what? I don't play basketball" I said

"Come on, Stella, its not that hard" said Sean

"Come here" said Lenny waving me over to the spot he made the shot at.

I walked over there.

"Here, now just pick a spot, aim, and shoot" he said

I nodded and did as told. Well kind of. I ended up missing by a long shot, and almost hitting Marcus.

"Sorry!" I said automatically

"Okay, maybe we shouldn't let Stella, have the ball" said Greg as he gently took it from my hands.

"Hey, I didn't kill and/or hurt anyone" I said trying to take it back from him.

"Yet" added Sean.

I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Hey, dude are you spending the night?" Andy asked Sean randomly

"If its okay with the adults" said Sean

The was a round of yeahs and I don't care.

"Looks like I am" said Sean with a bright smile on his face.

"Is their any lemonade?" Andy asked Eric

He only nodded and began dribbling the ball trying to perfect his bank shot.

"Sweet" said Andy before charging in the lake house the boys following.

I rolled my eyes as I took the ball wanting to perfect my bank shot. I was terrible.

* * *

><p><strong>Charlie's POV<strong>

_God, I'm such a bad friend_

I had quietly snuck by Stella and made a bee line for the kitchen, where the boys were chit chating.[_I don't know what possessed me to do this but, I had to. I figured if Greg found out his jealousy would act upon it_

I silently walked by the boys not bothering to pay attention to what they were saying.

I then began pacing the floor in front of the boys thinking of a way to bring kissing Stella up.

"You ok Charlotte?" I herd Sean asked

I turned to him and tried to clam down my heart rate.

"Um uh" I stammered out.

_How exactly do you say this? I could just shout it out right? No that's stupid_

"Well er " I trailed of the boys were looking at me curiously.

"You sure you're okay?" Andy asked

Just do it "SEAN KISSED STELLA!" I slapped my hands over my mouth.

_Oh god. I'm an idiot. Stella is going to kill me_

Just then Greg did an epic spit take, getting Keith wet in the process.

"Hey" Keith Protested

"You kissed Stella?" Asked Andy everyone ignoring Keith

"Yeah, like a few days ago" said Sean

"Dude Bro Code" said Andy

"What bro code?" He asked

"No guy should go after a girl their home boy likes" said Andy

_Oh god Andy_

"And what you like her?" Asked Sean

"No Greg does!" Said Andy

"Guys" said Kieth only to be ignored

"Greg and I weren't even Bros when I kissed her" said Sean

"Guys" Kieth said a little louder.

"Oh my god you guys are so stupid" I said

"Guys!" Yelled Kieth getting noticed finally.

"What?" Asked Andy

"Where is Greg?" Asked Keith.

Just then shouting that sounded like Stella came from outside.

"Answer your question?" Asked Sean as we all ran to the porch to see what was going to happen.

* * *

><p><strong>Stella's POV<strong>

So here I was perfecting my bank shot only to be rudely interrupted.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Greg asked Turning me around to face him.

"Tell you what?" I asked honestly confused

"That you kissed Sean" he said

I stared at him for a moment "I don't know, because I didn't think it concerned you" I said slowly

"Well it does" he said as if it were obvious.

"No it doesn't!" I commented "I don't have to ask you who I can and can not kiss" I said

_Wow that sounded way better in my head_

"But you don't like him!" He said

"Oh so now you know everything? Of course I don't and I told him that. Why do you think we're friends?" I said

"You can't just go around kissing people!" He argued

"He kissed me and You make no sense! And FYI, my lips are mine and I will do whatever I please with them-"

Before I could Continue, I was quickly cut of, by Greg capturing my lips in an urgent kiss.

To be honest the first thought that came to my head was ow my lips are really going to be bruised.

I finally register what was going on.

I felt my heart rate speed up and palms become sweaty. Besides all that I softly kissed him back our noses brushing together not really knowing what I was doing.

I felt Greg smile against my lips and put one hand on my waist the other on my chin bringing me closer.

I let instincts take over and I felt my arms wrap around his neck.

I could taste the sour lemonade on his lips and I'm pretty sure he could taste my watermelon chapstick.

The sound of a wolf whistle (thanks Marcus) made me pull away.

I'm pretty sure my face was tomato red. My heart rate slowed down just a little.

Greg had a really big goofy grin on his face.

Heck I probably did too.

"Do you usually tell people to shut up by kissing them?" I asked playfully

"Only people I really like" he retorted

"How many people is that?" I asked

"One" he answered leaning in again

The piercing scream of Sally, made me pull my face away from Greg's, reminding me we had an audience.

"Aw, that's so cute!" Sally gushed making my face turn even redder.

"Ha! I told you! Kurt you owe me ten bucks" came Eric's voice.

I rolled my eyes.

"Yes!" Shouted Charlie "I did it, I did it" she began chanting.

I ignored her and turned to Greg "You still have no right to yell at me, just because you're jealous -" I started only to be cut of again, by Greg's lips.

"Can you stop?" I asked once he pulled back.

He shook his head "Nope"

"You're a weirdo" I said smiling

_So that's it, Greg and I had some what confessed our feelings ... now what?_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So did that make up for it? Yes? No? Maybe so? I have another chapter that I think you guys will love, but the past two years have been extremely hard and I'm not going into details because they are very close and personal to me. How ever now that I am getting back maybe I'll pick up the paste and updates will be quick for this, since it's close to being finished, and there's grown ups two. Please forgive me I'm back and here to stay I promise and can I just cry about how many favorites and follows and reviews this has gotten, I'm in a awe and it means so much, maybe we can reach 200 reviews? I mean I'm still gonna update if we don't it's just a dream of mine. **


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